Council Deadlocks on Hotel Tax Increase

A divided San Diego City Council deadlocked Monday in two 4-4 votes on proposals to increase the city’s 7% transient occupancy tax, a proposal initiated by Mayor Maureen O’Connor to support San Diego’s arts community.

Lacking a decisive vote because Councilman Wes Pratt was home with an inner-ear infection, the council failed to approve a 2-cent-on-the-dollar increase suggested by Councilman Bruce Henderson or O’Connor’s proposal for a 1-cent increase that was approved last month by the council’s Rules Committee.

The issue was rescheduled for today, but an aide to Pratt said it was unlikely he would be able to attend the meeting. The aide, Jennifer Adams-Brooks, said Pratt supports the 1-cent increase and has no position on a 2-cent increase because the proposal is a new one.

In both votes, O’Connor’s closest allies--council members Abbe Wolfsheimer, Gloria McColl and Ron Roberts--joined the mayor in a standoff against members Henderson, Ed Struiksma, Judy McCarty and Bob Filner. The mayor and her allies supported the 1-cent increase and opposed the 2-cent increase.

Although council members have discussed a hotel tax increase for several months, Henderson issued a memorandum Monday suggesting for the first time that the tax be increased by 2 cents, to 9 cents on the dollar, in 1988, and gradually raised to a total of 12 cents by 1995.

Each penny would generate $3 million in revenue for the city, but Henderson suggested using the money from the increase to pay off bonds, raising what his calculations showed would be more than $850 million over 30 years. Henderson proposed to spend more than $178 million of that sum to fully fund renovations in Balboa Park and Mission Bay Park, and to purchase the Fox, Balboa, California and Spreckels theaters.

The Rules Committee proposal calls for a penny increase in the hotel room tax Aug. 1, and the formation of a committee of arts, city and tourism officials to decide on allocation of the money. O’Connor has suggested spending the money on the two parks, her proposed Soviet arts festival, a city protocol office and local arts projects.

The committee also would decide whether the tax should be increased another penny in 1989 and then make a recommendation to the council.

Roberts, McColl and Wolfsheimer defended the penny increase as reasonable, but Struiksma strongly opposed raising the tax before the council decides specifically how the money would be spent.

“I think we’ve kind of got the cart before the horse,” Struiksma said. “Isn’t this what politicians are always accused of?”