Different Taxes, Licenses : Life on the Edge: Businesses Straddle State Border

EGREMONT, Mass. —  Innkeeper Cindy Alper must keep a close eye on where a customer sits in the Swiss Hutte restaurant, because part of the dining area is in Massachusetts and the rest is in New York.

“There are different meals taxes in the two states,” her husband, Gert, said recently. “In the Massachusetts section it’s a 5% tax and in the New York part it’s 7%.”

The Alpers said they knew about the inn’s dual statehood when they bought it two years ago.

“The book work is a little more--the liquor licenses for both states and the different taxes--but it hasn’t been too different from other restaurants,” Cindy Alper said. “Most people who know about it find it amusing.”

But she took exception to publicity the inn received over the winter when she had trouble renewing her Massachusetts liquor license.

The license was revoked temporarily by the Egremont selectmen when the Alpers failed to attend a public hearing to transfer the liquor license from the inn’s former owner.

Drinks on One Side

As a result, drinks could be served only in the New York side of the restaurant. The confusion has since been resolved.

Many of the inn’s patrons are weekend travelers to the community of 1,200 people from New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey, Cindy Alper said, noting that the Tanglewood Music Center is nearby in the Berkshire Mountains.

The Alpers aren’t the only ones coping with life on the edge.

Doing business on a two-state basis is nothing new to Catamount Ski Area president and general manager William Gilbert.

“My father, years ago, built a golf course half in New York and half in Connecticut,” Gilbert said, adding that he once took part in a venture to construct a marina on the line between New York and New Jersey.

“This hasn’t been a novelty for us,” Gilbert said. “We were almost destined to come to Catamount--it’s been our history.”

But Gilbert said the ski area is not on the border.

“That is a misnomer. For all intents and purposes, we are two resorts. One is in Massachusetts and one is in New York,” Gilbert said.

Separate Ventures

Gilbert said he and his partner approached the ski area as two separate ventures from the start, securing operating permits and licenses from New York and from Massachusetts.

“We were realistic. You can’t go to Massachusetts and say: ‘Will you let New York take care of everything?’ Both states regard you as part of them and want to take care of what is theirs.”

The resort even splits its utilities. The lights for night skiing are on Massachusetts power lines and the lifts run on New York electricity.

“If there is a power failure in Massachusetts, we can run the lights from New York,” Gilbert said.

Law enforcement on the border line also can be unusual, Egremont Police Chief Michael K. Balcom said.

“Prior to my coming here, the only communication Egremont had with New York authorities was by telephone. The first thing I did as chief was to set up radio contact with the Columbia County sheriff’s office,” he said.

Whatever the hardships, Gilbert and the Alpers said they would do it all again, although Cindy Alper said there are limits.

“I’ve heard of a restaurant further north on the New York-Canada border. I don’t know if I would want to do business between two countries; the two states is enough.”