Center Funding Raises Red Flags Convention Facility Proposal Brings Out Some Opponents

As a state legislative bill to pay for a convention center expansion draws closer to reality, details are beginning to emerge and opponents are starting to surface.

In a meeting Thursday of the Spokane Convention Center Advisory Committee, members discussed the fifth and latest draft of the proposed bill that would help fund an $85 million expansion of the convention center.

The bill, which is being hammered out by Spokane, Tacoma and Vancouver, would pay for projects statewide.

One element, increasing the city’s hotel and motel bed tax by 2 percent, was only touched upon by the committee in Spokane, but drew heat from the hotel industry.

The Washington State Hotel and Motel Association vows to oppose any bill that would raise the hotel/motel bed taxes.

“That’s totally unacceptable to any of my association’s members,” said Becky Bogard, legislative council for the trade group. “We think we’re already bearing our burden for taxes.”

While the hotel/motel tax proposal met little objection from the 40-plus advisory committee members, other items did raise concerns, including a section of the bill that would limit funding to projects costing $10 million or more.

That detail alarmed committee members representing the Spokane Valley, which has pledged to support the convention center in return for a share of the funds to finance projects such as Interstate Fairgrounds improvements or the Mirabeau Point community center. Because neither of the projects under this plan considered for those sites would cost as much as $10 million, the county conceivably could get shut out.

“If we’re just limiting this to $10 million, I think we’ve just lost some support,” said City Council member Jeff Colliton.

“Big time,” affirmed Kate McCaslin, the county commissioner representing the Valley.

The proposed bill would allow cities to create public facilities districts as a mechanism to construct and operate convention, sports and special events centers.

Along with authorizing the bed tax, the the current draft would create a .033 percent rebate of state sales tax, and allow levying of an additional .05 to .1 percent sales tax.

A vote of the community would be required to implement the taxes.

For Spokane’s purposes, however, the funding bill would only cover part of the cost of the 240,000-square-foot convention center expansion, and car rental taxes, restaurant and beverage taxes and naming rights have all been discussed as additional means of financing. Questions Thursday also involved creation of a public facilities district and whether it would be preferable to use the district already in place to fund and operate the Spokane Arena.

Another stumbling block concerned ownership of any county projects funded by the bill: If the public facilities district were used to fund them, would it also own them?

Despite the obstacles, Colliton was encouraged by the meeting and hopeful bugs in the bill can be worked out to ensure that the convention center expansion has the support of all of Spokane County.

“We’re progressing real well,” he said. “Obviously we have some real hurdles, one being a full buy-in from the entire community.

“We have to inform them what is in it for them,” Colliton said.

The hope for backers of the expansion is that the bill would be passed in the next legislative session, signed into law and Spokane County could vote on the proposal in November. “That’s optimistic, but it’s not out of the question,” said Colliton.

Oliver Staley can be reached (509) 459-5445 or by e-mail at olivers@spokesman.com