Philip Pantuso reportx for the Times Union that state Sen. Michelle Hinchey, on Jan. 6, introduced the Short-term Rental Registry Act, new legislation intended to help municipalities track, regulate and collect taxes on vacation rentals. "Instead of putting the onus on every community and small town to figure this out on their own — there just isn’t the time, expertise and availability to do that, so this is a moment for the state to step in," the Saugerties Democrat said. The new law defines short-term rentals as any rental unit "offered for tourist or transient use" for less than 30 consecutive days. The act would create a statewide registry, managed by the Department of State, in which property owners would be required to register their units every two years. Failure to do so could result in a $200 fine per day. Property owners in municipalities that already have vacation-rental registries do not have to file separately with the state, but those municipalities would still be required to provide registration information to the state department so that a comprehensive database can be maintained. The registry data will be shared with Airbnb and VRBO, so they can verify that properties listed on their platforms are properly registered. And all municipalities will get a monthly report with the number of rentals, their locations and the number of nights the rentals were occupied. Hinchey’s 41st Senate District is located in the Mid-Hudson Valley and Catskills, a region that ranked among the top 10 most profitable areas for new Airbnb hosts in 2021, according to a company report. An independent analysis of the short-term rental market found that spending on Airbnbs and VRBOs in the Capital Region and Hudson Valley jumped 99 percent from 2020 to 2021. Read the full story in the Times Union.