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The standing committee made its recommendation Monday. The Unified Board of Commissioners will consider the issue at its regular 7 p.m. meeting today. The change requires a two-thirds majority, eight votes, to pass.

Six percent is the maximum allowed under Kansas law, said Kerry Strahm, executive director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Kansas City, Kan., and Wyandotte County.

The six percent guest tax would raise about $320,000, an increase of about $107,000.

Pointing out that Kansas City, Mo., voters recently raised the transient guest tax from 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent, Strahm said, "It's time for us to get in line."

The Unified Government contracts with the Kansas City Kansas Area Chamber of Commerce for convention and tourism marketing services provided by Strahm's bureau, a chamber division.

The convention bureau receives 74.4 percent of the revenue raised by the tax. Currently, the bureau's share amounts to about $160,000, Strahm said.

The rest is divided between a fund for the maintenance of the Reardon Civic Center and another fund promoting downtown tourism. The downtown tourism fund could be used to help develop a hotel next to the civic center, Strahm said.

The proposed new charter ordinance does not change the percentages or uses of the three funds.

Wyandotte County now has about 850 hotel rooms. If four hotels on the drawing boards are built, the number of rooms would nearly double, Strahm said.

The Unified Government is negotiating with a developer for a hotel next to the Reardon Civic Center. Sandifer Leasing Inc. has announced a hotel for Freeway Corporate Center southwest of Interstate 35 and the 18th Street Expressway.

Two other hotels are included in the Unified Government's master plan for 400 acres east of the Kansas Speedway in western Kansas City, Kan. The government is seeking a master developer for the area.