BY LISA DONOVAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati City Council's proposed admissions tax hike would be a few extra pennies on a ticket to a concert, movie or ballgame, but event organizers say it could cost much more.
"An additional tax has the potential of creating an environment where performers may choose to play cities or markets where there isn't the tax," said Mike Smith, vice president of Nederlander, part owner of The Crown, Taft Theater and Bogart's.
He explained that an entertainer receives a chunk of the ticket sales, and if the government gets a larger portion through a tax, it means that much less for the entertainers.
Mr. Smith was among the 20 members of the newly formed Committee To Oppose Unfair Admissions Tax who gathered Fridayat City Hall to discuss how to block the tax or, should the measure pass, repeal it.
This week, council members Minette Cooper, Dwight Tillery, Bobbie Sterne and Tyrone Yates and Mayor Roxanne Qualls gave preliminary approval to raise the admissions tax so the city could meet its $100 million commitment to build and fix Cincinnati schools.
The admissions tax-hike plan calls for raising the 3 percent admissions tax to 4.25 percent for 11 years, starting in 1999, before gradually returning it to 3 percent in 2020.
As part of the increase, the first $1.05 of a ticket would no longer be exempt from taxation. That would mean the tax on a $10 ticket would go from 27 cents to 43 cents at the 4.25 percent rate, an increase of 16 cents.
Supporters say the hike would provide steady funding for schools. Councilman Charlie Winburn, one of four council members opposing the increase, maintains the city can meet its obligation by cutting the budget and dipping into a projected surplus of between $37 million and $47 million over the next six years.
In addition to increasing the admissions tax, the funding plan also calls for applying the city's 2.1percent earnings tax, levied against those who work or live in the city, to out-of-town entertainers, such as musicians and professional athletes.
"There are major artists who may not be willing to come because they'll have to pay a tax they weren't used to paying before," said Bradley Broecker, president of Broadway Series management group, which books touring Broadway shows at the Aronoff Center for the Arts and the Taft.
"Either we're going to have to absorb it, or there's going to have to be an increase (in ticket costs)," Mr. Broecker said.
He questions why the city has targeted the admission tax, in light of the projected surplus.
"I think the schools are the responsibility of the entire population of Cincinnati," Mr. Broecker said. "It's the entire population that will benefit from better schools and its the entire population that maybe let the schools fall in disrepair."
Mr. Yates calls the proposed tax increase the "fairest" means of meeting the city's commitment to the public schools.
If the measure passes July 1, members of the coalition say they'll spend $300,000 on an initiative to repeal the tax increase.
