Measure would boost taxes on restaurant and bar tabs in a downtown 'hospitality zone' and on hotels across New Orleans
After weeks of wrangling over a bill that would boost taxes on restaurant and bar tabs in a downtown "hospitality zone" and on hotels across New Orleans, supporters led by Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration have suggested major changes. Key among those changes is giving the City Council control over whether to impose new taxes and how to spend at least some of the revenue. The new bill would also take Faubourg Marigny out of the taxing area, although the bill still describes the hospitality district's boundaries as extending to Elysian Fields Avenue on the downriver end. The other boundaries would be the river, Claiborne Avenue and the Pontchartrain Expressway.
View full sizeThe bill calls for all of the money not spent on marketing to be spent on infrastructure, sanitation and safety improvements in the French Quarter.Earlier versions of the bill gave all taxing authority to a board of tourism industry executives and at-will mayoral appointees without set terms, an arrangement that critics said excluded key stakeholders and was not sufficiently accountable to the public.
The latest draft, obtained by The Times-Picayune, would require the council to vote on separate propositions on the three proposed tax increases, which, if approved, voters citywide then would be asked to authorize. If approved, two-thirds of the projected $16 million in annual revenue would be split evenly by two groups -- the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp. and the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau -- for advertising the city to potential visitors.
Though the higher food and beverage taxes would be levied in other areas, such as the Warehouse District and the Central Business District, the bill calls for all of the money not spent on marketing to be spent on infrastructure, sanitation and safety improvements in the French Quarter.
Instead of a new state-chartered board overseeing that money, a 15-member committee chaired by the mayor's chief administrative officer would make spending recommendations to the council by Sept. 1 each year. Committee members would serve two-year terms without compensation, and the mayor would appoint just two members -- a hotel executive and a restaurant or bar owner -- from among candidates chosen by state lawmakers who represent downtown areas.
The City Council's district B and C representatives also would serve on the committee, along with a French Quarter resident appointed jointly by the French Quarter Citizens Incorporated and the Vieux Carre Property Owners, Residents and Associates.
Other members would serve by virtue of their leadership roles in: the Downtown Development District, the French Quarter Management District, the Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District, the Ernest N. Morial-New Orleans Exhibition Hall Authority, the New Orleans Chapter of the Louisiana Restaurant Association, the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp., the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, the New Orleans MultiCultural Tourism Network and the Greater New Orleans Hotel and Lodging Association, Inc.
Landrieu, who as Louisiana's lieutenant governor served as the state's top tourism official, has led the charge to create a hospitality zone in part to create a funding stream to maintain $30 million in infrastructure improvements that the convention center's board has promised to make in and around the Quarter in preparation for next year's Super Bowl. Another $10 million in FEMA money is slated to be spent on the neighborhood's crumbling streets and sidewalks.
State Sen. Ed Murray and state Rep. Walt Leger III, both New Orleans Democrats, have sponsored versions of the initiative. Neither returned calls Monday. Landrieu's spokesman declined to comment.
Murray twice has yanked the original version of his bill from the agenda of the Senate Committee on Local and Municipal Affairs as Landrieu administration officials, tourism industry leaders and property owners within the zone have hashed out their differences, largely behind the scenes. The legislative session ends June 4.
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Michelle Krupa can be reached at mkrupa@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3312.