Attorneys Debate Legality Convention Center Funding

One attorney says law allows for special taxes on real estate within a given district

The funding scheme for the proposed expansion of the Convention Center has turned into a hotly debated issue in San Diego politics.

San Diego hotel owners may have approved room-tax surcharges on their guests in a private election, to help bankroll the expansion project -- but is that money-raising approach street-legal?

"It was approved by the hotel owners; they're the people who benefit from the bailout that the City Council is giving them," said Cory Briggs, an Attorney with San Diegans for Open Government. "But it's tax money. And as of 2010, any new special tax has to be approved by two-thirds of the voters."

The room-tax surcharges will cover about 75 percent of the expansion project's construction and bond costs over 30 years.

Subsidies from the city and port of San Diego are expected to underwrite the rest.

The hotels will be assessing an extra 1 to 3 percent, depending on how far or close they are to the Convention Center.

The city has hired an outside attorney, who guided a similar process in San Jose, to defend against expected court challenges to San Diego's approach.

He says the state's Mello-Roos law allows for special taxes on real estate within a given district, as opposed to citywide.

"Then the 'qualified electors' are not the voters, they are the owners of the properties that would be subject to the tax if it were to pass," said the attorney, Dan Bort. "It's sort of a variation on the theme 'No Taxation Without Representation'. It's 'No Representation Without Taxation.'"

Project backers are hoping for groundbreaking by the end of the year. But both attorneys predict it may take a year or two to get through the legal and regulatory approval processes.

For more of this debate and other issues facing this election, watch "Politically Speaking" Sunday at 9 a.m. after "Meet the Press."

You can watch all of Gene Cubbison's episodes of Politically Speaking, as well as his ongoing political coverage by visiting our Decision 2012 page.

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