NORWICH – An occupancy tax on hotel and bed & breakfast rooms in Chenango County has been researched to death over the past eight years or so, but this time might just be the charm.

An implementation date could be as soon as 2013.

What’s different? All but one of the counties that surrounds Chenango now charge the tax. And in the state, 42 of 62 counties also do.

“One of the reasons we previously decided against it was that people would go to a surrounding county instead. But now, almost everyone has it,” said Ross Iannello, the politically unaffiliated supervisor of New Berlin. Iannello is a longtime member of the Planning & Economic Development Committee.

The average regional bed tax rate is 4 percent; it’s anywhere from 3 to 12 percent across New York. Cortland County charges 5 percent; Madison, 4; Broome, 3; and Otsego, 2 percent. Only Delaware does not have an hotel occupancy tax.