AUSTIN, Texas — A new petition is going around seeking to put a future expansion of the Austin Convention Center on the ballot.
- City Council approved $1.2 billion upgrade
- Group called Unconventional Austin sharing petition
The move comes a week after the Austin City Council approved a $1.2 billion upgrade to the six-block site along Trinity Street and Cesar Chavez Street. Members of Unconventional Austin are sharing the petition, which said if city leaders want to spend more than $20 million to upgrade the convention center, then it must go to a public vote.
MORE | Read the petition
Unconventional Austin’s statement to Spectrum News said, in part:
“Our petition would prioritize public support for the people and places that make Austin a unique and authentic tourism destination, many of which we are at risk of losing—live music and musicians, arts and culture, our history, iconic local businesses, and our environment. We do not oppose expansion of the Convention Center, but believe the public should vote on any expansion and that public dollars for the expansion should be limited so that we can prioritize and invest in those things that make Austin unique.”
RELATED STORY | UT Report Envisions Future, Economic Potential of Expanded Austin Convention Center
Last week, council members approved the most expensive expansion scenario outlined in a recent University of Texas at Austin report, that would demolish and rebuild the current space, as well as build a new facility west of Trinity Street. The resolution suggested, in addition to public-private partnerships, another way to fund the expansion of the convention center is through a 2 percent increase to the hotel occupancy tax, which is the additional tax hotel guests pay for in Austin.
Currently, the HOT rate is 15 percent, with nine percent going to the City of Austin, and the remaining six percent going to the State of Texas. Under state law, the revenue can only be used to promote the tourism, convention and hotel industries.
According to the UT study, city officials identified specific categories for every HOT expenditure. The convention center capital funds receives about 64 percent of hotel taxes. Supporters of the petition want that slice of the HOT revenue to decrease to 34 percent.
City Council Member Jimmy Flannigan of District 6 said 30 percent of HOT revenue already goes to historic preservation and cultural arts. He believes there can be benefit beyond the tourism industry, by creating more public spaces and connectivity to downtown.
“My constituents always know when there's a convention in town because the red line is full of people with convention badges. Those people staying in hotels in the northwest part of town are eating and shopping in the evenings in that part of town. So it really does benefit the entire community. The jobs that are generated by the tourism industry. People live all over the region that work in this industry,” he said.
Flannigan said the Austin Convention Center loses out on dozens of events every year, because the site is too small, and there is opportunity to grow as the industry modernizes.
“As the convention evolves, they’re demanding other types of amenities, other facilities, things that the nineties convention center did not anticipate. Not only will it create more floor space and more meeting space, frankly more venue space and music space, it will also speak to the evolution of the tourism industry and generate more of that business right here in Austin,” he said.
The resolution directs the City Manager’s Office to present convention center expansion analysis and design by July 31, 2019. As for the petition, state law requires 20,000 valid signatures to put a proposed city ordinance on the ballot.
