CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — On Wednesday, members of "Voters For Good Government" and some business owners gathered to announce their opposition to Proposition A in the upcoming election.
“We are not against expansion. We are not against a hotel. We are against the way it’s being funded and for the city to have control over,” Joshua Tijerina, the director of sales for Hawthorne Suites and Candelwood Suites said.
Tijerina said he was representing several hotel owners.
Proposition A is the re-purposing of existing city sales tax called Type A Funds.
Type A funds take 1/8 of cent of a dollar to go towards paying the debt and maintenance on the American Bank Center (ABC) and another 1/8 of cent to repay the debt and maintenance on the Seawall. It totals 1/4 of cent of a dollar.
This generates roughly $17 million a year and could increase with more sales in the city.
The tax expires for the ABC in 2025 and expires for the Seawall in 2026
If voters approve, after those obligations are paid, the money would then be put towards a Convention Center Complex. That complex includes the seawall, arena, convention center, Selena Auditorium and a new headquarters hotel.
A smaller amount of money would go towards regional parks, commercial and industrial roadways and new flight destinations at Corpus Christi International Airport.
Per state law, Type A funds have to be used on items that provide economic development. That's why money can not be used on residential roadways.
“We want to be able to expand that to improvements and enhancements to the convention center complex because we’re only limited right now to the arena,” Corpus Christi District 3 City Councilman Roland Barrera said.
Tijerina said city staff came to ask for hoteliers support on the proposition on Tuesday. He said they found that disrespectful that they came to hoteliers now and didn't include them in any of the planning process.
Tijerina and others said they didn't like the idea of the city chipping in on a private project.
“This hotel will be subsidized by the City of Corpus Christi while many of our hotel owners built multi-million dollar properties at their own risk, without any type of city subsidy,” Tijerina said.
However, Barrera said this isn’t unprecedented, as the city is currently involved with private hotels through some incentive programs.
“The city is already involved in private projects," he said. "There’s three hotels in the downtown area. The Emerald Beach Hotel, we just voted to support a $2 million incentive. The Homewood Suites which is going to be the newest hotel downtown across from the Surf Club, that's a $1.5 million incentive.”
Barrera said that having the Type A funds available for this project provides the most competitive and favorable financing if a hotel was to come to the Convention Center Complex.
Should a hotelier come along and want to build a hotel there, Barrera said the city would go through the same building process it always does.
"It would be providing an incentive. All these other hoteliers are free just like in that other process," Barrera said.
Along with Voters For Good Government and business owners, the Nueces County Republican Party has voted to oppose Proposition A as well. Brandey Batey with the party said it doesn't align with their platform.
“A lot of the stuff we just felt like most of this was to benefit people outside of the community. And, there were so many things could be addressed here within our city,” she said.
City Council wanted to create this convention center complex after Corpus Christi has missed out on several tourism opportunities.
Of the five funding sources City Council planned to use on the project, Type A funds would contribute the most.
A study done on the project estimated it would cost $725 million, although the city would only be pitching in a portion of that total an estimated $231 million.
The proposition will appear on the ballot on the Nov. 7 election. If it fails, the city will have the ability to try again in a future election.
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