Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune has proposals he hopes will ease concerns over a plan to raise the countywide hotel-motel tax to pay for an expanded Albert B. Sabin Cincinnati Convention Center.

        Mr. Portune is asking for a vote by county commissioners on the matter Wednesday.

Portune

        Cincinnati City Council already has approved the plan — which calls for a 1.5 percentage-point increase in the citywide rate and a 4.5-percentage-point increase for the countywide tax to pay off $141 million in bonds for the project.

        The city's tax increases from 1.5 percent to 3 percent starting April 1.

        Among Mr. Portune's ideas:

        The convention center would be managed by a Convention Facilities Authority. It would be run by a board of 11 directors — six appointed by the county commission, three by the Cincinnati mayor, and two appointed by suburban mayors.

        One of the county's appointments would represent townships, one a major business trade association and one from the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau. The three others would be at-large appointments.

        More than $520,000 per year would be returned to suburban communities.

        Sharonville Mayor Virgil Lovitt said the northern suburbs would not get equal representation on a convention authority, and the amount of money proposed to go back to the suburbs isn't enough.

        Suburban hotels and motels generate $750,000 for each 1 percent of tax on the books, he said.

        “They're not even offering 1 percent of the increase back to people paying the bills,” Mayor Lovitt said. “That will probably be a tough sell.”

        Mr. Portune said it's important for the commission to vote on the matter soon, because the county needs a change in state law that will allow it to raise the countywide tax and use it for expansion and operation of the convention center.

        Commissioner John Dowlin will hold a summit on the financing plan Tuesday in Sharonville. He said a vote by the commission one day later seems unlikely.

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