Sometimes I have to side with the Occupier Gang and Tea Parties: They agree multi billion corporations should not be getting tax subsidies so they make money. Why should taxpayers be forced to finance the building of a hotel?
“The City Council on Wednesday approved a major tax break for the $172 million Marriott hotel development in South Park planned by Williams/Dame and Associates.?
The deal, approved on Wednesday, June 13, functions as a rebate on half the tax revenue the 23-story project will generate over its first 25 years. According to a report by the city’s Chief Legislative Analyst, the rebate, which was supported by area labor unions, will cost the city $21.9 million, adjusted for inflation.”
The City just declared a fiscal crisis. It can not pay for the public safety officers it needs or fix the potholes. But a multi-national corporation gets $21 million—which ends up on their bottom line. If they want to build a hotel—let them—without tax dollars. What do you think?
Marriott Hotels to Get Tax Break
LA Downtown News, 6/15/12
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – The City Council on Wednesday approved a major tax break for the $172 million Marriott hotel development in South Park planned by Williams/Dame and Associates.?
The deal, approved on Wednesday, June 13, functions as a rebate on half the tax revenue the 23-story project will generate over its first 25 years. According to a report by the city’s Chief Legislative Analyst, the rebate, which was supported by area labor unions, will cost the city $21.9 million, adjusted for inflation.
That money would otherwise be funneled into the city’s General Fund, which pays for services including parks and public safety. The city approved similar tax breaks for the planned hotel on the old Wilshire Grand site, the 1,001-room J.W. Marriott/Ritz-Carlton and the hotel in the still-delayed Grand Avenue project.
Williams/Dame was the latest hotelier to claim that, without the tax break, the current financing environment doesn’t support new projects.
Critics of the tax breaks, including the ownership of Downtown’s Westin Bonaventure Hotel, say they put competitors at a financial disadvantage.
The Williams/Dame project, which will include 392 rooms in two Marriott brands in a single building, is slated to break ground this month and open in the summer of 2014.
