Bill > S1399

This bill, titled "Relative to the excise on the use of commercial parking facilities," proposes to establish a new chapter in the General Laws to allow cities and towns to impose a tax on the use of commercial parking facilities. Specifically, any city or town that accepts this chapter can levy an excise, or tax, of ten percent on the parking fee for the transfer of the right to use a parking space in a commercial parking facility for more than two hours. The bill defines key terms such as "commercial" parking (excluding residential and certain hotel/motel/trailer park parking), "operator" (anyone running a parking facility), and "parking facility" (any place used for commercial, unmetered, off-street parking). The tax is to be collected by the operator from the user and paid to the commissioner of revenue, who will then distribute the collected funds back to the cities and towns that have accepted the chapter, based on the amount collected within their jurisdiction. The bill also clarifies that the tax must be stated separately from the parking fee and outlines provisions for information sharing between the commissioner and municipalities for administration.