Phila. hotel-room tax goes up
A City Council committee yesterday approved a 1.2 percentage-point increase in the city's hotel-room tax, with nearly half of the new revenue - or about $2.3 million a year - helping to pay for higher-than-anticipated costs to expand the Convention Center.
A City Council committee yesterday approved a 1.2 percentage-point increase in the city's hotel-room tax, with nearly half of the new revenue - or about $2.3 million a year - helping to pay for higher-than-anticipated costs to expand the Convention Center.
The remaining anticipated revenue would be split between the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp. and the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau. Each would receive almost $2 million annually to promote the Philadelphia region.
For hotel guests, the tax increase would amount to an extra $1.40 per night, and raise the city's total hotel-room tax from 14 percent to 15.2 percent.
Early last summer, state lawmakers had authorized the city to collect more by implementing a tax increase of up to 1.5 percentage points. But the Nutter administration, working with tourism organizations and hoteliers, estimated that a 1.2-point increase would suffice.
Councilman Bill Green asked about the possibility of initiating talks with the city's suburban counties to push for them to increase their hotel taxes to promote tourism in the region.
But City Finance Director Rob Dubow said he worried it might be too late to start those talks now if the effect would be to delay the 1.2-point tax hike under consideration. That could threaten the expansion's construction, and in turn jeopardize conventions already booked.
Separately, the Council committee also approved a bill extending the city's $15 million-a-year financial obligation to the Convention Center, slated to end in 2033, to 2040. Beyond that, the legislation states that the city would not be obligated to fund the $790 million center in any other way for its financing, operation, or management.
Both bills received backing from all committee members except Councilman James F. Kenney, who abstained because he works for an architectural firm, Vitetta, that designed the expanded center.
The full Council is slated to cast an initial vote on both bills today, with a final vote expected next Thursday.
During the hearing, Council members also learned that of $449 million in contract awards to date for the Convention Center expansion, nearly 31 percent - or $137 million - went to minority or women-owned businesses.
Convention Center officials said the expanded building was expected to open in early 2011.
