'Yes' on hotel-tax hike

EDITORIAL
Copyright 2001 Kansas City Star Co.
Article date: July 29, 2001
 

Kansas City voters should approve a 1 percent increase in the hotel/motel tax on the Aug. 7 ballot. The tax revenue would be used primarily to help repair and improve Bartle Hall, and to enhance marketing programs that attract tourists to the metropolitan area.

Voters approved a 1 percent increase in the hotel/motel tax in 1999. But a legal technicality later nullified that vote.

The current hotel/motel tax is 5.5 percent; it would reach 6.5 percent with approval of Question 3 on next month's ballot. The 1 percent increase would produce an estimated $2.3 million in extra revenue every year. The total hotel/motel tax would then generate nearly $15 million a year.

Half of that money would be spent to maintain the city's convention and entertainment facilities, primarily at Bartle Hall.

Forty percent of the revenue from this tax goes to the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Kansas City for advertising campaigns and programs to attract visitors to Kansas City.

The last 10 percent of the hotel/motel tax is used for the Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund. Unfortunately, over the 11 years since the tourism fund was formed, various groups have spent some of this money on questionable programs. Reforms of the fund have been promised, however, and a few positive changes have occurred.

Given all the improvements needed at Bartle Hall and other convention facilities, city officials ideally would have found a way to avoid sending any new revenue to the tourism fund.

The Kansas City Star also has raised concerns in the past about how the Convention and Visitors Bureau is financed. Kansas City's hotel/motel tax supplies most of the budget for the bureau, which does not receive revenue from the hotel/motel taxes of any other cities in the area.

That's unfair, because the bureau helps generate income for suburban hotels by attracting large conventions to this area. Even though most guests stay in Kansas City hotels, some visitors wind up staying or at least shopping in suburban areas.

Kansas City hotel operators support the tax increase. They point out that the total tax rate on a Kansas City hotel or motel room would remain below, or comparable to, tax rates charged in many other cities that compete with Kansas City for convention business.

By approving Question 3, voters would help Kansas City improve its tourism facilities and attract more visitors.
 

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