reprinted from:
Convention center idea won't die
By Richard Richtmyer, Anchorage Daily
News Backers of a failed ballot proposal to increase the city's hotel tax to fund a new convention center in Anchorage say they'll keep trying to convince the public it's a good idea and they'll put it before voters again in 2004. But this time, they're planning to bring the campaign down to a more grass-roots level. "We're not going to get anywhere with a glossy campaign," Bruce Bustamante, president of the Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau, said at the group's membership meeting Friday. "It's going to be people that make it happen," he said. Although specifics about cost and location remain uncertain, the idea is to build a 280,000-square-foot convention and civic center somewhere downtown. Anchorage already has the Egan Civic & Convention Center, which is about a third that size and drew about 380,000 people last year, according to Bustamante. By building a larger center, advocates assert the city could draw more and bigger events. Opponents have noted that the Egan Center loses money and that a bigger convention hall could be a money pit. A group of proponents of the new convention center raised more than $500,000 and ran a high-profile advertising campaign ahead of last April's elections. The group, called Anchorage Civic and Convention Center Yes, was trying to persuade voters to approve an increase in the city's 8 percent hotel bed tax to 12 percent to finance a new center. They argued it would help boost the economy and create more than 700 permanent jobs. Voters ultimately rejected the proposal, which got about 46 percent of the vote, well short of the 60 percent needed to pass. Larry Crawford, president of the Anchorage Economic Development Corp., said the ballot initiative failed in large part because proponents of the new convention center left a lot of unanswered questions, including where the center would be built and specifically how much it would cost. "Building a larger convention center is still a good idea, but I think the people who really support it realize it has to be approached in a different way," Crawford said. Most of the members of the convention and visitors bureau at Friday's meeting favor the new convention center, and they kicked around some ideas on how to better sell the plan to the public. Drafting a more specific proposal that defines the cost and the location of the center was one of the ideas. Calling the bed tax something else, like a "visitor industry fee," was another. Bustamante said one of the biggest obstacles in getting the message out to the public during last year's campaign was a city law that prohibits employees and board members of the convention and visitors bureau, which is funded partially by bed-tax dollars, from publicly campaigning for ballot initiatives. "It's vital that we get the city to lift this restriction," he said. Convention center proponents' efforts for the 2004 campaign are likely be geared more toward face-to-face contact than mass advertising. That way, they can better convey what they believe is the need for a new center and its potential, Bustamante said. There was no organized opposition to last April's ballot initiative, but many skeptics voiced concerns that the increase in the bed tax would not be enough to cover the cost of a new convention center and that city residents, not visitors, ultimately would foot much of the bill. Others said raising the bed tax could discourage visitors from coming to Anchorage. Lee Chipman, general manager of the Anchorage Hilton, said a 12 percent bed tax would be comparable to the rates in most cities. "This wouldn't be something that would keep people away," he said. Proponents of a new center have not come up with an alternative financing plan. "We still feel (the bed tax) would be the primary revenue source," Bustamante said. There remains some opposition to the plan, even among convention and visitors bureau members. Terry Latham, general manager of the Best Western Golden Lion Hotel in Midtown, said he favors a new convention center. But he opposes raising the bed tax to pay for it. "It's mostly downtown hotels
and businesses that benefit from conventions," Latham said. "There are a lot
of hotels in Midtown, and we really don't see an increase from it." |
