January 28, 2010

Dolphins float new hotel tax for stadium reno subsidies

The owners of the Miami Dolphins have come up with a plan to get that $250 million for stadium improvements that they don't want to pay for: Increased hotel taxes. This would require action by the state legislature, since state law caps tourist taxes at 6%, and Miami-Dade County is already up against the cap.

County approval would also be required, though, and Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez has already come out against the hotel-tax plan, or any taxpayer spending at all: "I would not be supportive of any public funding for the renovation of the Dolphins' stadium," he told the Miami Herald. "Now is not the time." Add in that a raised hotel tax would be a target for dozens of sports and arts groups if the state approved it — "Do you know how many people are going to jump on that bandwagon?" one former hotel association executive told the Herald — and you can probably file this one under "trial balloon" for now.

Of course, even trial balloons have their uses, and this one did provide the Dolphins a chance to get the alleged urgency of stadium renovations into the newspaper — the 2014 Super Bowl isn't going to host itself, you know! "The clock is ticking to show we have some movement,'' Dolphins lobbyist Ron Book told the Herald. "Certainly we have to have something to show the owners, to show what we are doing to keep the stadium in a position that they find acceptable." Or else people just might have to find another reason to visit Miami in February.