Dear Editor,
In Middletown, we are currently faced with a choice. Do we want to subsidize and promote short-term-rentals (STRs) or do we want to limit/eliminate them? The current Council consists of a voting block who seem more in favor of limiting them. On the other side of the issue, we have Mr. Turano, who owns and operates them. We have two new candidates, Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Amarant, who are strongly in the pro-STR camp. Mr. Hoffman recently corrected someone who said he owned nine by saying he WISHED he owned nine. Mr. Amarant said he isn’t currently planning to invest more in Middletown because of the tax structure. He has spoken in favor of eliminating the middle tax tier. What do you think their plans are, if they get elected, and eliminate the higher tax rate on STRs as the first order of business?
We keep hearing the argument that STRs are only houses that no one can afford. This is NOT the truth. Around a third of the streets across Town have at least one STR. Neighborhoods, once full of families, are now full of rental cars on Summer weekends only. When challenged on this in online forums, the STR owners, including the would-be Councilmembers, get upset. They argue and fight and make excuses and justify their actions. We, the residents of Middletown, are the ones who bear the burden of STRs on every street. They, the owners, reap the profits of our hardships. This is a contentious issue. This issue is so contentious that people are telling me that they will be writing me in, because I’m willing to stand up to people who have their own personal agendas and I want to support the Community where we all live.
While many other issues face our Town, this one issue seems poised to change our Town forever. We can be a Community or we can be a bunch of tiny 3-bedroom hotels for festival goers and mansion visitors. So we need to ask ourselves this election… What choice do we want to make?
Sincerely,
William Gauch, Middletown
