Gov. Phil Murphy cast skepticism on a narrative that the AirBnB tax, which inadvertently hit owners of summer rentals, has actually hurt businesses at the Jersey Shore during the vacation tourism season.

The tax, a part of the 2019 budget, levied an 11.65 percent rate on any rental under 90 days—primarily crafted with AirBnBs in mind. But summer rentals, which typically last a week, were also hit.

Advocates of a measure sent to Murphy’s desk to alleviate the impact on the summer rental industry argue the tax would have a ripple effect: fewer tourists would stay at the shore and those who do would have their vacation budget eaten up by the new expenses. Businesses and restaurants would, in turn, see less profit.

“This is an anecdotal observation, this is not an empirical one,” Murphy said at an unrelated event Tuesday in Berkeley Heights. “There’s no evidence whatsoever that this has held back business on the Jersey Shore.”

Additionally, the measure would only levy the tax on rentals for those obtained through an online marketplace. The definition was crafted so that it would not include summer rentals, which are advertised via word of mouth or online, and unlike AirBnBs do not deal with online payments and reservations.

Lawmakers initially put language into the tax legislation providing that the tax would not be charged on rentals – typically lasting a week – that are booked through a licensed real estate broker. But few summer rentals are done via brokers anymore and instead by word of mouth or websites such as Facebook and Craigslist, according to the Jersey Shore Rentals Coalition, and so they were hit by the tax.

Opponents of the exemption worried it would give summer rentals an unfair advantage over the rest of the state’s hospitality industry.

“Tax fairness, we feel is important. If you’re going to act like a hotel, you should be paying the same taxes like a hotel,” New Jersey Restaurant and Hospitality Association President and Chief Executive Officer Marilou Halvorsen told NJBIZ in April.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article indicated that the measure lawmakers sent to the governor in June would exclude rentals in the shore counties of Monmouth, Ocean, Atlantic and Cape May from the surtax, however that provision was dropped and is no longer included in the legislation.