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Analyst Says Tax Hike Would Cover Chargers Stadium, But Thinks Costs Underestimated

San Diego Independent Budget Analyst Andrea Tevlin said that the Chargers' proposed tax hike "would generate enough money to cover the team's projected price tag for a combined stadium and convention center annex, but that proposal may be underestimating those costs," according to a front-page piece by David Garrick of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. In a report released yesterday about the Nov. 8 ballot measure, Tevlin said that low hotel tax revenues in a particular year "could prompt the city to cover project-related expenses with money normally used for public safety and other functions." A separate analysis released yesterday by the San Diego County Taxpayers Association said that projected revenues from the Nov. 8  ballot measure "would fall" more than $400M short of what is needed. But the Chargers immediately called that analysis "biased and 'rubbish.'" Chargers Special Advisor Fred Maas has said that the team's plan would "raise hotel taxes enough for there to be a large financial 'cushion' for cost increases." The plan also includes "creation of a reserve to cover bond payments and operating and maintenance expenses during lean tourism years." But Tevlin said that there may be "individual years where the revenue stream from higher taxes or 'transient-occupancy taxes,' isn't sufficient" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 8/23). The San Diego County Taxpayers Association said that the ballot initiative "included 'troubling governance elements' and prevented a contiguous expansion of the San Diego Convention Center, which the group has backed" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 8/23). 

I'M THE TAX MAN: USA TODAY's Brent Schrotenboer notes the Chargers and MLB Rangers, who are both fighting for new facilities, "simply want to tap a revenue source that's more popular than ever for funding big-time stadiums -- hotel room or rental car taxes that are mostly paid by out-of-towners." The people voting on "so-called tourist taxes -- local residents -- generally won't have to pay for them because they don't stay in local hotels." The people who "do pay for them -- visitors -- don't get a vote on them because they live somewhere else." Schrotenboer notes "cautionary tales have littered the national landscape from Seattle to St. Louis, where visitors to county hotels are scheduled to pay the debt on an abandoned NFL stadium for five more years." Five of the six newest NFL stadiums "rely on local hotel tax revenue to pay for part of the costs." The Falcons' new $1.5B Mercedes-Benz Stadium opens next year "with help" from $200M in "bonds backed by hotel taxes" (USA TODAY, 8/23).

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