Organizations Spared Cuts : Grants Up as Hotel Tax Estimate Rises

In an unexpected twist, city officials said Wednesday they expect San Diego to receive $600,000 more in hotel and motel tax money during fiscal 1987-88 than they had predicted just a week ago. The money will be used to augment the funding of several organizations that were facing cutbacks.

The revised projections, based on the upward trend of tax receipts in recent months, were announced at a budget hearing of the City Council’s Public Services and Safety Committee.

Among the beneficiaries of the new money are the Convention and Visitors Bureau ($203,000), the San Diego Motion Picture and Television Bureau ($70,000) and the San Diego Model Railroad Museum ($11,200).

Out of the Frying Pan

Using the new calculations, the city manager’s office also recommended higher funding for several cultural organizations which only last week were facing significant cutbacks in city allocations. The committee approved the recommendations. The entire City Council will consider the budget for hotel tax revenues, known as transient occupancy taxes, at a budget meeting today.

Based on the earlier recommendations, one cultural institution, the San Diego Natural History Museum, was planning to raise its admission fee and drop several programs.

“This is more than we ever expected,” said Richard S. Bundy, president of the museum’s board of trustees. “We will not be raising the ticket price.”

Last week the museum faced a one-third cut in its current level of funding, which is $337,000. But on Wednesday the city manager recommended that the funding level remain the same.

Despite the financial reprieve, though, the museum still faces a $65,000 deficit, Bundy said. But he described the deficit as one “we can manage.”

Dinosaur Discovery

Much of the museum’s projected deficit comes from the unexpected discovery of a dinosaur skeleton unearthed this spring in Carlsbad. Scientists at the museum are busy removing the skeleton--the first of its kind found west of the Rockies--from its ancient rock encasement. The unbudgeted costs for preparing the dinosaur are expected to reach $50,000, museum officials say.

Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer jokingly called the additional $600,000 in TOT funds “a money tree.” At her urging the committee also approved allocating $50,000 for the promotion of San Diego’s sports fishing industry and $10,000 to help support a dance company called Jazz Unlimited.

Fishing and dance, which Wolfsheimer said has been neglected in San Diego, are part of “a banquet” of diversions the city must offer tourists to ensure they “can’t resist coming back,” she said.

Additionally, the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, which last week was slated to receive no funds in the upcoming budget, received a recommended allocation Wednesday of $11,200, which matches its current city grant.