Today the N&R reports the dispute over possibly using hotel taxes to help build a $50 million performing arts center might be a ‘moot point’ because debt on Greensboro Coliseum improvements “likely will be paid off by the time the city needs to spend the tax revenue on a performing arts center.”
Meanwhile, I couldn’t help but note the irony in today’s editorial. The N&R seems perplexed that the Greater Greensboro Convention and Visitors Bureau accepts legal the advice of a Raleigh attorney who says hotel tax funds cannot be used for a downtown performing arts over the advice of Greensboro’s interim city attorney.
Yet the editorial turns around places stock on the advice of Durham city leaders:
From where we sit, the ideal choice is clear: a downtown facility stands a greater chance of creating positive economic ripples by increasing pedestrian traffic and stimulating business for center-city shops and restaurants. Durham leaders told a visiting contingent from Greensboro last week that the Durham Performing Arts Center has had precisely this effect in that city’s downtown during its first year of operation. And when asked where they believe the best site would be in Greensboro, they didn’t hesitate: downtown.
Meanwhile note the advice of commenter ‘City Watcher,’ who says the “hotel motel tax may become irrelevant because the city can still fund this performing arts center with tax dollars and without voter approval through something called ‘Certificates of Participation.’This is how Durham funded its performing arts center.”
I wonder how well that would go over with G’boro taxpayers.
