reprinted from:

No, not that story . . .

This one involves taxation and universal truths.

Truth One: When a government creates a new tax and starts to fund programs with it, those programs tend to become permanently dependent on the new cash.

This is not unlike the law of physics that says objects in motion tend to stay in motion.

Truth Two: City Hall doesn't always mean what it says.

Case in point: The city of San Diego's hotel-room tax, a major component of the convention center expansion plan.

It was launched in 1964 by City Hall, where officials clearly stated -- in writing -- that it was to be used solely for promoting tourist-related activities.

Not everyone bought that line. So the next year a referendum was held.

The late Charles Brown, a Mission Valley hotelier, led the opposition and warned that the tax would one day become a political "slush fund" for the City Council.

Turns out he was right.

City Hall denied it, of course, and the '65 voters endorsed the promotion- only policy.

Which changed.

Many general city services fall under the tourist-promotion label, city officials would argue later, including things like San Diego Stadium (now called Qualcomm).

Meanwhile, as its uses evolved, so did its name.

In the beginning it was called, simply, the "bed tax." These days it's the mind-numbing "transient occupancy tax," known also by the perky acronym "TOT."

In any event, today's tax is virtually unrecognizable from the '60s version.

Back then only seven programs were on the receiving end of these dollars. Today? About 200.

And there were abuses. By the early '70s, it was learned that TOT dollars went to pay for the mayor's limousine, for officials' trips to San Francisco and Puerto Rico, even for city office equipment.

There are no such abuses today -- that we know of -- but this tax has become a major cash cow, in demand more than ever for uses with slight, if any, connection to tourism.

Take, for example, a likely fight brewing between the Padres and library backers over a share of specific TOT dollars. (The Padres would probably win this fight if they get voter approval this November for a new ballpark.)

And this year the TOT funded disparate things ranging from a writers' alliance to small parades to one neighborhood town council's beach party.

All this rankles Reint Reinders, president and chief executive of the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau (CONVIS), an early and current recipient of TOT dollars.

"What's really alarming is the number of things and services and organizations and events and what have you that are getting money from this," Reinders said.

"Nobody wants to give that up. People are only expecting more every year. And with district (City Council) elections, our politicians are looking at this as a way of taking care of events or particular pet projects within their region. I would, too, I suppose."

The only true fiscal discipline to San Diego's TOT has been its relatively modest tax rate. Currently it's set at 10.5 cents of every $1 spent on hotel rooms; many of San Diego's competitors (including Anaheim, San Francisco and Seattle) have bed taxes in the 14- to 15-cent range.

There's pressure to boost the tax, but the outcome is by no means clear, and any boost would require voter approval.

One thing's for sure: This tax is not going away. In fact, it's probably the best thing any San Diego politician has ever seen.

For starters, TOT revenues have risen steadily this decade. And overall it has generated $724.2 million since '64.

Moreover, it has provided Mayor Susan Golding a means to hire more police officers while giving the council political cover by shifting a tax burden to people who don't live here.

Which brings up another odd feature of this tax.

"In some ways, it's a taxation without representation," said Dipak Gupta, a professor of public administration at San Diego State University.

The "TOT is a very interesting tax because it has no constituency," Gupta said, except, perhaps, for the hotel industry, which traditionally opposes room-tax hikes.

The tax-shift point was noted by Port Commissioner Michael McDade during a debate with convention-center expansion opponent Bruce Henderson before an audience, most of them seniors, in San Carlos.

"Every one of you in this room has benefited from the taxes paid on rooms by tourists from outside the region," McDade said.

"In view of the fact that most of you aren't going to vote for property tax increases, most of you don't want sales taxes, you should thank God every night that you've got the tourist tax to take care of the many expenses that you'd be paying for otherwise."