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Convention center overrun bill passes
By Mark
Schlinkmann of the Post-Dispatch With the Feb. 4 election on the St. Charles convention center proposal approaching, the City Council has voted to require construction cost overruns and operating shortfalls and subsidies to be paid from tourism taxes on hotels and restaurants. The legislation, which was passed 7-3 on Tuesday night, is designed to protect general city services financed by other taxes from being cut back if the $50 million project isn't as successful as projected. Instead, tourism promotion activities would be hit. As promised, the bill's sponsor - mayoral candidate Bob Hoepfner, 10th Ward - then dropped his opposition to the convention center and voted for a resolution urging voters to adopt the ballot issue. "The taxpayer comes first, and that's the aim of this bill," Hoepfner said. However, members of an opposition committee, Put St. Charles First, remain unconvinced. Meanwhile, confusion arose over what costs the measure passed Tuesday would cover. City Administrator Jim O'Connor offered a stricter interpretation than Hoepfner and some council members who voted for the bill. O'Connor said he believed that the wording requires the council to use tourism tax money not just for unexpected costs but also for ongoing marketing of the center - an expense that the city had planned to cover with casino tax revenue. Moreover, he said he was unsure whether initial promotional efforts tied to the center's start-up also fall into that category. To cover those two expenses, the city had projected spending $187,500 in gambling tax money this year, $685,000 next year and $544,000 in 2005. The amount would drop to $230,000 in 2006 and to $100,000 by 2008. Hoepfner and Council President Kevin Riggs, among others, said they believed the bill would continue to allow both marketing and promotion to be covered by gambling tax revenue. Thus, tourism tax money now budgeted only for existing Convention and Visitors Bureau functions wouldn't be reduced unless, as Hoepfner put it, "this thing drastically goes bad." Critics, citing O'Connor's interpretation, disputed that. "Hundreds of merchants on South Main Street, North Main and (in) Frenchtown depend on marketing by the tourism department," said Councilman Rory Riddler, 1st Ward. Riddler added that because it's unclear now how the bill would be carried out, "at worst it's going to mislead the public." O'Connor said he would consult with the city attorney on the issue. However, even if his interpretation holds, he said, councilmen could in effect repeal it if they decided later this year to again earmark some casino tax money for the convention center. Joining Riddler, a mayoral candidate, in voting against Hoepfner's measure were John Scherr, 5th Ward, and John Gieseke, 8th Ward. Mayor Patti York, who is running against Hoepfner, Riddler and County Councilman Dan Foust in the Feb. 4 mayoral primary, said she supported the bill. In St. Charles, the mayor doesn't vote on bills. The separate resolution urging voters to back the convention center passed on an 8-2 vote. The opponents were Riddler and Gieseke. Scherr, like Hoepfner, switched from opposing the project to supporting it Tuesday night. Scherr, a pipe fitter, said the convention center would create needed construction jobs in "the weak economy we're facing right now." Riddler, who at one time had supported the project, said his vote against the resolution was in keeping with his neutral position on the ballot issue "to leave it in the hands of the voters." A string of union members and leaders of business organizations spoke to the council in favor of the project. "They understand the economic engine this project can be to the city," said one of them, Nancy Stuenkel, president of the St. Charles Chamber of Commerce. Speaking against it was Sara Schneider of Put St. Charles First, who said the city would be at risk if the center doesn't generate as much new business as projected. "This is about our city's budget, not
jobs," Schneider said. |
