Mixed in the news that the plans for an increased hotel tax may finally move toward the General Assembly and the expansion of the existing hotel tax to electronic apps is the news to once again push forward for a convention center hotel.
Of course, the hotel would need a subsidy according to proponents, even though the subsidized convention center was to be the catalyst to spin off hotels that would not need public money. We laid out our initial objections to the need to subsidize hotels in a 2001 Brief. When the state legalized slot machine gaming and identified economic development projects and old debts that could be retired, money was set aside to subsidize a convention center hotel. Eventually, when plans did not materialize, this money was shifted to the County for, you guessed it, more economic development.
In 2011 we again noted, in light of a revised push for the hotel after the gaming money had been removed, that taxpayers would be bridging the gap for another “build it and they will come” claim. Finally, last year, noting that it should not have been surprising for hotel developers to ask for a subsidy given the history of subsidized development, we pointed out that proponents should examine existing streams of gaming money to identify which sources they would shift back to provide for a hotel subsidy.
