Managers to meet on proposed room tax increase

Carson City hotel managers are planning to meet in the near future to discuss the fate of a potential three-cent increase on the capital's room tax rate.

City Manager Larry Werner told the Board of Supervisors last week that the city will wait to take any action until the hotel properties agree on how the tax increase should be divvied up - or if it should even happen at all.

"The only reason we would pass the ordinance is if the hotel folks had a clear consensus," Werner said on Monday.

Property managers had been discussing the proposed increase last year with the Carson City Convention & Visitor's Bureau, but at an October tourism meeting the managers of some of Carson City's largest hotel properties unexpectedly decided to rescind the proposal to increase the hotel room tax rate from 10 percent to

13 percent.

Under the proposal, two-thirds of the new revenue would go to Carson City Parks and Recreation to refurbish the JDW Centennial Complex with handicap accessibility, new scoreboards and fencing, among other improvements. Lodging properties say a significant portion of their business comes from sports tournaments that use the facility.

The remainder of the revenue would be split between the visitors bureau and V&T Railroad for marketing.

After the October tourism meeting, Gold Dust West General Manager Jonathan Boulware said the hotels did not have enough confidence the money raised by the tax increase would go toward their outlined causes.

Terrie McNutt, the director of sales at the Courtyard by Marriott, said on Tuesday she is trying to schedule a time when the property managers can meet to go over the proposed tax increase.

"A meeting will be held to discuss our options and whether or not we wish to pursue," McNutt said.

Candace Duncan, the executive director of the CCCVB, said not much has changed since the October meeting.

"I think that everybody still has the same needs and wants," Duncan said. "It's just figuring out how to make it happen and what percentage of the room tax can be used for what project."