Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne wants a better mechanism for recruiting and financing special events
The Louisiana Legislature may not be able to do much this year to pump new money into an existing fund or create a new one to help lure major sporting events to the state, the chairman of a special study committee said Wednesday. Sen. Edwin Murray, D-New Orleans, who sponsored a resolution at last year's session to look into a better financing mechanism for the big-ticket events, said that unless an unanticipated pot of money is found, it's unlikely the Legislature will address the issue this year.
Sen. Edwin MurrayMurray, chairman of the Major Sport Event Study Committee, said that even if this was a year in which the Legislature could take up taxes, Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration has opposed new revenue measures. The state Constitution prohibits the Legislature from enacting new revenue measures in even-numbered years.
More than a decade ago, lawmakers carved out .03 cents of the state's 4-cent sales tax and dedicated it to the Office of Culture, Recreation and Tourism to operate the state Office of Tourism office and pay for tourism advertising and promotions.
Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, who oversees the tourism office, said that tax generates between $22 million and $24 million a year, but in recent years it has been directed to pay $6 million as the state's match for the 2013 Super Bowl in New Orleans and $1 million for the NCAA Final Four Women's basketball championship in New Orleans next year. This year, it was hit for $2 million for the NCAA Men's Final Four in New Orleans in April and the BCS national title game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in January.
Now, he said, the tax is being used to finance arts grants each year totaling about $1.5 million and the operations of the new sports museum with seven employees in Natchitoches.
By the time the "pass-through expenses" are deducted, Dardenne said, this year he may have about $12 million of the tourism marketing money to run the tourism office and pay for ad campaigns to bring visitors to the state.
"That's a big concern for me and the tourism industry's big concern," Dardenne said. "We want them (the special events) here, but we ought to have a better mechanism for financing and recruiting these events."
Murray said that a logical move would be to bump up the portion of the sales tax dedicated to tourism to possibly .04 cents, generating another $5 million to $6 million. But that would take away money from other parts of the state budget, he said.
"It will be difficult for us to talk about paying for special events when we are shutting down mental health clinics," Murray said. "We will probably not be able to do much this year unless something changes" and more money is available.
Some of the tax measure that are used by Texas and other states to form a special events fund are already spoken for by the Louisiana Legislature, Murray said.
He said an auto rental excise tax of 2.5 percent -- which generates about $5 million a year -- is scheduled to expire June 30, but lawmakers will not be able to extend it because of the constitutional prohibition on taxes in even-numbered years.
"I am not certain any bills will come out of this study," Murray said.
Dardenne agreed but said more discussions are needed. "It (the problem) is not going to go away," he said.