Tuesday, March 02, 1999
Restaurant tax hard to swallow
Eateries object to plan to fund Sabin expansion
BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Some restaurant operators are choking on the idea of a new restaurant tax to help pay for an expansion of downtown's convention center.
A penny-on-the-dollar citywide tax would generate enough money yearly to pay off $66 million in bonds. That's a sizable chunk of the estimated $325 million to $350 million cost of more than doubling the Dr. Albert B. Sabin Cincinnati Convention Center, downtown.
But some restaurant operators worry a new tax could drive away local diners and the very convention business that an expansion would be designed to attract.
“They're going to kill the golden goose,” said Evan Andrews, executive vice president of Montgomery Inn Inc., which operates the popular ribs restaurants.
“The people that book the conventions are going to start seeing all these little add-ons and say, "I'm not going there. They nickel and dime you to death.'”
But advocates of the expansion are working to assemble a funding package that keeps Cincinnati competitive in the convention industry, said Todd Garrett, a senior vice president at Procter & Gamble Co. and chairman of the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The preliminary funding plan also includes increases in city and county hotel taxes and millions of tax dollars from Ohio, Hamilton County, the city of Cincinnati and Kentucky.
Cincinnati City Councilman Jim Tarbell, a veteran restaurant operator, argues a new restaurant tax is a small price to pay for the extra business an expanded convention center could attract.
But Mr. Tarbell, who has endorsed the expansion plan, said he thinks such a tax should apply only to restaurants that would benefit most directly from the expansion.
“I don't think it's fair if it's across the board and applies to little "mom and pop' places that are off the beaten path and would never see a tourist,” he said.
Advocates for the expansion figured the restaurant tax would be one of the toughest elements of the funding package to sell, and it appears they were right.
Already, the Ohio Restaurant Association's board has voted to oppose the creation of a restaurant tax.
“It's something we don't want to see started,” said Charles Blosser, the association's president. “It just makes it that much more expensive to eat out.”
In addition, Mr. Blosser said his group worries that a citywide tax would drive people to restaurants outside the city limits.
The fairest way to have all businesses that benefit contribute to the expansion would be through a general sales tax increase, said Nick Sanders, whose Nicholson's Tavern & Pub is downtown.
But with the sales tax increase for stadiums still fresh in voters' minds, advocates are looking into other ways to raise money.
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