CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cuyahoga County Council opted Tuesday to postpone a vote on a $7.9 million bailout sought by the administration of County Executive Armond Budish for the county-owned Hilton Cleveland Downtown hotel.
Council members instead referred the proposal to their Finance and Budgeting Committee for a Monday hearing, though the administration had included the bailout as part of a routine set of agenda items that typically are passed without hearings.
In an interview with cleveland.com after the Tuesday meeting, Council President Dan Brady said a hearing is needed because of the “public interest” in the Hilton, and the county’s response to the hotel’s financial troubles.
“My concern is how the hotel’s doing because of the economy,” Brady said. “We have skin in the game with the Hilton, so we’re on the hook here….I think a public discussion about the Hilton hotel and about what [the county is] doing is appropriate.”
The administration proposes using $7.9 million from the county’s general fund to cover property taxes and debt payments that would normally come from revenues generated by the county-owned, Hilton-managed hotel.
County officials told cleveland.com last week that stays at the 600-room hotel have plummeted this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. But they declined to document that claim by disclosing the hotel’s occupancy rates, saying the information is considered “proprietary.”
In that interview, budget director Walter Parfejewiec and Fiscal Officer Michael Chambers did disclose that the cost to taxpayers could eventually climb to between $12 million and $20 million if hotel bookings fail to rebound.
Parfejewiec described a $20 million bailout as a “worst-case scenario.”
The administration is proposing the bailout while also imposing furloughs and laying off workers to offset an estimated $76 million budget shortfall due to coronavirus-related declines in sales and property taxes and other forms of county revenue.
The county financed the $272 million hotel with bonds and leftover proceeds from a 2007 quarter-cent increase in the county sales tax. The facility opened four years ago, in time for the 2016 Republican National Convention.
Read more: How would you spend $8 million in extra tax dollars? A hotel bailout? We bet not.
"hilton" - Google News
June 24, 2020 at 03:31AM
https://ift.tt/2A22aeG
Cuyahoga County Council insists on hearing for proposed $7.9 million bailout of downtown Hilton hotel - cleveland.com
"hilton" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2GeMJPQ
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Cuyahoga County Council insists on hearing for proposed $7.9 million bailout of downtown Hilton hotel - cleveland.com"
Post a Comment