BATON ROUGE -- New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration and leaders of the city's tourism industry have been unable to reach an agreement on the possibility of a new hospitality district that would include downtown and the French Quarter, Sen. Ed Murray, D-New Orleans, said Thursday. Murray had scheduled Senate Bill 573 for a committee hearing but shelved the...
BATON ROUGE -- New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration and leaders of the city's tourism industry have been unable to reach an agreement on the possibility of a new hospitality district that would include downtown and the French Quarter, Sen. Ed Murray, D-New Orleans, said Thursday.
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New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration and leaders of the city's tourism industry have been unable to reach an agreement on the possibility of a new hospitality district that would include downtown and the French Quarter, Sen. Ed Murray, D-New Orleans, said Thursday. Murray had scheduled Senate Bill 573 for a committee hearing but shelved the measure, telling his colleagues that the involved parties -- Landrieu, tourism entities, French Quarter property owners and others -- had not settled on a strategy. The senator said he still plans to move a bill this session, which runs through June 4.
He has said previously that he prefers that all taxing authority related to a new district rest only with the City Council, and he has said that legislation may not involve creating a new political entity. That would suggest that any compromise may involve little more than establishing the district lines in which earmarked revenues could be spent.
The Senate committee that handles local legislation will convene again next week.
Bill Barrow can be reached at bbarrow@timespicayune.com.
