As used in this chapter, the following terms
shall have the meanings indicated:
BUSINESS OF CONDUCTING A TOURIST LODGE OR MOTEL OR HOTEL
The renting, leasing, maintaining, keeping, operating, conducting
or providing of overnight or temporary sleeping or housing accommodations,
for a consideration, to tourists, transients or travelers in any building
or structure or group of buildings or structures devoted exclusively
or primarily to said business, commonly known as "tourist lodges,"
"motels," "tourist cabins," "motor lodges," "motor courts," "tourist
courts," "tourist camps" or "hotels," whether meals are served therein
or not.
HOUSING OR LODGING UNIT
Any room, cabin or quarters, whether or not physically attached
to or connected with any other building or structure, used for sleeping
or housing accommodations in the business of conducting a tourist
lodge or motel or hotel.
No person shall engage in the business of conducting
a tourist lodge or motel or hotel without first having applied for
and obtained from the Township a license therefor as hereinafter provided.
No such license shall be issued to any person
who has been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude, nor shall
any such license be issued to any corporation in which any stockholder
holding 5% or more of any of the stock thereof or in which any director
or officer shall have been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude.
It shall be the duty of the members of the police
force of the Borough to inspect the licensed premises from time to
time, at any hour of the day or night, to determine that the provisions
of this article are being complied with.
No licensee shall employ in, on or about the
licensed premises any person convicted of a crime involving moral
turpitude within a period of five years from the date of such conviction.
Any person, firm or corporation violating any
of the provisions of this article or said rules and regulations, or
contributing in any way to the violation thereof, shall, upon conviction
thereof, be punished by a fine not exceeding $1,000 or by imprisonment
in the County Jail not exceeding 90 days, or by both such fine and
imprisonment, at the discretion of the Municipal Judge of the Borough
of Wanaque, in the County of Passaic.
It is the purpose of this article to implement
the provisions of P.L. 2003, c. 114, which authorizes the governing
body of a municipality to adopt an ordinance imposing a tax at a uniform
percentage rate not to exceed 1% on charges of rent for every occupancy
on or after July 1, 2003, but before July 1, 2004, and not to exceed
3% on charges of rent for every occupancy on or after July 1, 2004,
of a room or rooms in a hotel subject to taxation pursuant to Subsection
(d) of Section 3 of P.L. 1966, c. 40 (N.J.S.A. 54:32B-3), which shall
be in addition to any other tax or fee imposed pursuant to statute
or local ordinance or resolution by any governmental entity upon the
occupancy of a hotel room.
There is hereby established a hotel and motel
room occupancy tax in the Borough of Wanaque, which shall be fixed
at a uniform percentage rate of 1% on charges of rent for every occupancy
of a hotel or motel room in the Borough of Wanaque on or after July
1, 2003, but before July 1, 2004, and 3% on charges of rent for every
occupancy of a hotel or motel room in the Borough of Wanaque on or
after July 1, 2004, of a room or rooms in a hotel subject to taxation
pursuant to Subsection (d) of Section 3 of P.L. 1966, c. 40, N.J.S.A.
54:32B-3 (sales tax).
The hotel and motel room occupancy tax shall
be in addition to any other tax or fee imposed pursuant to statute
or local ordinance or resolution by any governmental entity upon the
occupancy of a hotel room.
In accordance with the requirements of P.L.
2003, c. 114:
A. All taxes imposed in this article shall be paid by
the purchaser.
B. A vendor shall not assume or absorb any tax imposed
by this article.
C. A vendor shall not in any manner advertise or hold
out to any person or to the public in general, in any manner, directly
or indirectly, that the tax will be assumed or absorbed by the vendor,
that the tax will not be separately charged and stated to the customer,
or that the tax will be refunded to the customer.
D. Each assumption or absorption by a vendor of the tax
shall be deemed a separate offense, and each representation or advertisement
by a vendor for each day that the representation or advertisement
continues shall be deemed a separate offense.
E. The penalty for violation of the foregoing provisions
shall be a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $1,000 for each
offense.
The tax imposed by this article shall be collected
on behalf of the Borough by the person collecting the rent from the
hotel or motel customer. Each person required to collect the tax herein
imposed shall be personally liable for the tax imposed, collected
or required to be collected hereunder. Any such person shall have
the same right in respect to collecting the tax from a customer as
if the tax were a part of the rent and payable at the same time, provided
that the Chief Financial Officer of the Borough shall be joined as
a party in any action or proceeding brought to collect the tax.
A copy of this article shall be transmitted
to the State Treasurer and to each hotel or motel located within the
Borough.