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Message
Hotel/motel tax in EBR
Posted on 11/7/17 at 9:09 am
Posted on 11/7/17 at 9:09 am
Big draw is its a tax on "outsiders". Only people checking in a local hotel pay.
The revenues are to go to the River Center improvements and to Visit Baton Rouge. Currently the tax is 4% of the hotel bill. 3% goes to Visit Baton Rouge (our convention & visitors bureau) and 1% to the River Center. The new tax would be 6% with 4% going to Visit BR and 2% to the River Center.
These taxes are in addition to local and state sales taxes.
I don't like this tax for two reasons; first we voted it down once so they "gerrymandered" the taxing district this time to exclude Baker, Central and Zachary. This is following the precedence set with the CATS tax and changing the electorate to insure passage. This has set a very bad precedence and it is continuing on.
Second,is Visit Baton Rouge needing that kind of money? It was created in 1982 by the city-parish council. It has a board of directors, a CEO, and a staff to do the work. I know of no scandals, but with what happened with the COA I'm reluctant to give them more money.
They are audited by the state which is good. The audit done for 2016 shows they have a net position of 5.2 million dollars so they are rock solid. Most of those assets are liquid and rose 1.3 million dollars from 2015. Per the audit the floods helped their balance sheet as more hotel/motel rooms were occupied and expenses were down.
In 2016 they took in 5.3 million in revenues of which 5.2 million were from hoel/motel taxes. Their expenses were nearly 4 million dollars. That was down from 4.5 million in 2015 mostly because they did fewer promotions.
Do they really need more revenues? Is 5 million a year not enough?
I'm sorry I don't think they have proven their case.
The revenues are to go to the River Center improvements and to Visit Baton Rouge. Currently the tax is 4% of the hotel bill. 3% goes to Visit Baton Rouge (our convention & visitors bureau) and 1% to the River Center. The new tax would be 6% with 4% going to Visit BR and 2% to the River Center.
These taxes are in addition to local and state sales taxes.
I don't like this tax for two reasons; first we voted it down once so they "gerrymandered" the taxing district this time to exclude Baker, Central and Zachary. This is following the precedence set with the CATS tax and changing the electorate to insure passage. This has set a very bad precedence and it is continuing on.
Second,is Visit Baton Rouge needing that kind of money? It was created in 1982 by the city-parish council. It has a board of directors, a CEO, and a staff to do the work. I know of no scandals, but with what happened with the COA I'm reluctant to give them more money.
They are audited by the state which is good. The audit done for 2016 shows they have a net position of 5.2 million dollars so they are rock solid. Most of those assets are liquid and rose 1.3 million dollars from 2015. Per the audit the floods helped their balance sheet as more hotel/motel rooms were occupied and expenses were down.
In 2016 they took in 5.3 million in revenues of which 5.2 million were from hoel/motel taxes. Their expenses were nearly 4 million dollars. That was down from 4.5 million in 2015 mostly because they did fewer promotions.
Do they really need more revenues? Is 5 million a year not enough?
I'm sorry I don't think they have proven their case.
8
Posted on 11/7/17 at 9:10 am to doubleb
quote:
In 2016 they took in 5.3 million in revenues of which 5.2 million were from hoel/motel taxes. Their expenses were nearly 4 million dollars. That was down from 4.5 million in 2015 mostly because they did fewer promotions.
More corrupt LA government
This post was edited on 11/7/17 at 9:11 am
Posted on 11/7/17 at 9:11 am to doubleb
Why don't they just make everyone staying in a hotel pay $1000? Then we could lower all the other taxes and still have money to give to the friends and family of city leaders.
Posted on 11/7/17 at 9:13 am to doubleb
Does anyone seriously think Baton Rouge is a tourist draw? We have NOLA an hour down the interstate. I know they got the bowling finals a few times and the beauty pageant but is that worth $5mil a year? How about cheaper hotel rooms drawing more folks?
Posted on 11/7/17 at 9:17 am to jbgleason
quote:
Does anyone seriously think Baton Rouge is a tourist draw? We have NOLA an hour down the interstate. I know they got the bowling finals a few times and the beauty pageant but is that worth $5mil a year?
You're forgetting about our #1 selling point for tourists, diversity. That's why we had to shut down St. George.
Posted on 11/7/17 at 9:18 am to doubleb
This is the low hanging fruit for a quick fix to revenue short falls or "projects" that someone wants to take on. The problem is the theory that it comes from outsiders. True, in part, but it also starts to drive conference business away as the cost to come here increases. Every percent you add puts us on par with larger cities with more to offer in tourism, events, etc. At some point you price yourself out of business..... Remember this is not a flat dollar amount but a percentage of the rate charged. So, as the room rate increases you will automatically bring in more revenue. No need to add more taxes.
Posted on 11/7/17 at 9:22 am to jbgleason
quote:
Does anyone seriously think Baton Rouge is a tourist draw?
that doesn't matter (it isn't FWIW), its a source of revenue that BR hasn't obscenely raped (like NOLA) and by God, if we can get some more tax money off of those folks who come to watch an LSU game we want it.
Posted on 11/7/17 at 9:24 am to Displaced
quote:
Hotel/motel tax in EBR
quote:
The revenues are to go to the River Center improvements and to Visit Baton Rouge
I'm okay with it.
Some of the revenue should go towards marketing the city and River Center for more conventions like those Miss America and Bowling events they did a couple of years back.
That has ancillary benefits of driving new businesses to area hotels, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues. It's a good thing for service industry and it is largely one that is paid by outsiders that visit for either conventions, state government or ball games.
I don't view Visit Baton Rouge or the River Center as a corrupt entity like I do CATS or COA.
Almost every city I visit has a tax similar to that tied to your hotel bill.
This post was edited on 11/7/17 at 9:27 am
Posted on 11/7/17 at 9:28 am to jbgleason
quote:
Does anyone seriously think Baton Rouge is a tourist draw?
Do you think Tulsa or Little Rock is? They have similar hotel taxes.
Posted on 11/7/17 at 9:35 am to member12
quote:
Some of the revenue should go towards marketing the city and River Center for more conventions like those Miss America and Bowling events they did a couple of years back.
If you read my post you'd see the Visitor's Bureau already gets 5 million dollars a year, and they can't spend it all now. In your mind have they justified asking for more revenues?
And yes the tax is mostly paid by outsiders, but couldn't the tax go to something other than the Visitor's Bureau. Why couldn't it go to pay for Downtown improvements? Why not to adding more police patrols Downtown or in the areas served by the Motels/Hotels? Why couldn't it all go to the River Center?
And what about the fact that we voted no and now they change the electorate? Do you like that?
I'm sorry, VBR hasn't demonstrated a need, they have millions in the bank now, and while they may or may not be doing a good job (I don't really know).
I don't travel that much, but when I do I pay the tax. I don't like it but I pay it. Do you know what these taxes in other states go towards. Does a local convention bureau get 67% of the revenues or do the revenues go to other things.
I can't see why VBR needs 33 percent more funding.
ETA: A quick survey indicates that other cities do use these taxes for local improvements and not mostly for the C&VB as we do.
Here's a link to a 2012 article comparing NO with numerous other cities around the nation and how their hotel/motel taxes are spent.
Hotel/Motel taxes elsewhere
This post was edited on 11/7/17 at 9:53 am
Posted on 11/7/17 at 9:37 am to member12
quote:
Do you think Tulsa or Little Rock is? They have similar hotel taxes.
We already have a tax, the question at hand is do we need a higher tax and does VBR need more revenues. It doesn't matter what Tulsa and Little Rock have. It's whether or not we want to raise the tax, and then more importantly where does the tax dollars go?
Posted on 11/7/17 at 9:43 am to doubleb
I'm voting no.
Posted on 11/7/17 at 10:33 am to doubleb
It has been voted down once.
All the more reason to say no. VBR has a surplus and plenty of assets on the books. No reason for the tax except to create a another government jobs program.
quote:
They are audited by the state which is good. The audit done for 2016 shows they have a net position of 5.2 million dollars so they are rock solid. Most of those assets are liquid and rose 1.3 million dollars from 2015. Per the audit the floods helped their balance sheet as more hotel/motel rooms were occupied and expenses were down.
In 2016 they took in 5.3 million in revenues of which 5.2 million were from hoel/motel taxes. Their expenses were nearly 4 million dollars. That was down from 4.5 million in 2015 mostly because they did fewer promotions.
All the more reason to say no. VBR has a surplus and plenty of assets on the books. No reason for the tax except to create a another government jobs program.
Posted on 11/7/17 at 11:18 am to jbgleason
With all the new hotels downtown in the past 2-3 years and more under construction now, someone obviously thinks there is a draw. I had to go downtown for a meeting last Tuesday night. I was shocked at the number of people on 3rd street well after business hours. This Saturday morning I was down there again and there were people all around as well. I asked some people who were wearing conference name badge/lanyards why they were here. There was some sort of university choral competition and there were schools from everywhere. These were college age "kids" who were from Utah and they were all staying at the downtown hotels. Met another group TN and IL.
This post was edited on 11/7/17 at 11:21 am
Posted on 11/7/17 at 11:31 am to lsursb
quote:
someone obviously thinks there is a draw
No doubt there are plenty of good reasons for folks to visit Baton Rouge. That's not the question in my mind.
My question is why are we making it routine to "rig" elections by gerrymandering the voting districts now, and if we do raise the tax, why is VBR getting 2/3s of it when they seem to have plenty of money now.
Last year they got 5.2 million dollars. Another 1% would give them around 7 million dollars a year to spend. Do they need that much money? Does anyone know? They don't spend all they have now.
Once this thing passes there's no going back. The deal is locked in. Vote no.
Posted on 11/7/17 at 12:23 pm to member12
quote:
I don't view Visit Baton Rouge or the River Center as a corrupt entity like I do CATS or COA.
You're just not jaded enough. I GUARANTEE you that if they get tax dollars from EBR parish, there's some corruption going on. For frick's sake, they cherry picked the electorate to keep trying to get more money after they were shot down once!
Besides, the Metro Council and the city/parish can go get fricked. After the COA debacle and the Council's REFUSAL to tell the COA they weren't going to levy the tax, I'm not voting for another single tax that will fund anything through the city/parish. They can cry all they want about not having money, but I'm not voting for any new taxes. If they reprioritize their spending and show me that they can be good stewards of our money, they can change my mind on tax issues, but as it stands, they've proven to me time and time again that they'll just keep taking more and more of our money and just keep funneling as much of it as they can into corrupt and/or incompetently managed entities.
We all know that any change is highly unlikely, though. The people of this parish have proven time and time again that they continue to prefer to elect corrupt thieves that waste their money as more and more people flee into Baker, Zachary, Central, and the surrounding parishes to protect their interests. Until that changes, the city/parish will continue its death spiral while the incorporated cities within its borders and the surrounding parishes thrive.
This post was edited on 11/7/17 at 12:51 pm
Posted on 11/7/17 at 12:32 pm to doubleb
I hate paying this tax when I go on vacation places.
Sounds great right? Let’s tax outsiders!
We should be against more taxes - for us and for our neighbor.
I’m voting no.
Sounds great right? Let’s tax outsiders!
We should be against more taxes - for us and for our neighbor.
I’m voting no.
Posted on 11/7/17 at 5:36 pm to doubleb
Voting no. There should not even be a Visit Baton Rouge.
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