The Spurs and Bexar County "remained apart" yesterday
on the amount of money the team is "willing to contribute to
build a new 18,500-seat arena," according to Cardwell,
Tedesco & Poling of the SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS. Bexar
County faces a Tuesday deadline to "submit its ballot items"
to the Justice Department for approval in time for a
November 2 vote. The county's preliminary feasibility
analyses for the arena call for an upfront contribution by
the Spurs of either $25M or $30M. The plans also call for
the Spurs to contribute $1.5M a year in lease payments, but
the "team hasn't agreed to any of those figures." Under the
early plans, voters will be asked to approve raising the
hotel occupancy tax from 15% to 17%, while the car-rental
tax would increase from 10% to 15%. The proposed tax
increases "drew protests from tourism industry officials,"
but the Spurs were "seemingly incensed by the criticism from
the hotel industry." Spurs VP/Business Leo Gomez said at a
public hearing: "I frankly am appalled at the leaders of
that industry (hotels and hospitality) who would scare their
employees into thinking they would lose their jobs because
of that meager tax" (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, 8/13).
