Aug. 7--Summit County Council is considering raising the county's hotel-room tax by 1 percentage point to pay for repairs and improvements to the John S. Knight Convention Center in downtown Akron.
The hike would raise the county's 4.5 percent tax on hotel rooms to 5.5 percent, bringing the total tax on hotel rooms in Summit to 14.75 percent.
The increase on hotel guests would be 71 cents per night "based on the average room rate in Summit County of $71," according to the legislation, which was introduced Monday night.
The additional tax would last through Oct. 31, 2017.
Overnight visitors to Akron would still be taxed less than they would be in Cleveland (15 percent), Columbus and Toledo (16.75 percent), and Cincinnati (17 percent), according to the legislation.
The Knight Center receives the bulk of county bed tax revenue $1.8 million for center operations. Susan Hamo, president of the Akron-Summit Convention & Visitors Bureau, told the Beacon Journal in March that the additional 1 percent is expected to raise about $500,000 a year. The legislation says "approximately $550,000" would be raised.
The University of Akron announced in June it will purchase the Crowne Plaza Hotel one of only two Akron hotels to convert into a student residence hall. On Friday, the city and UA announced an agreement to keep about 95 rooms (half of the total) available for the public and/or conventions through November 2009.
County officials did not know whether the $500,000 figure took into account the loss of the Crowne Plaza and Hamo could not be reached for comment Monday night.
But in an e-mail she sent to council President Nick Kostandaras Sr. on July 30, she said it would raise about $500,000 and warned that failure to pass the tax could hurt the "ability to attract another downtown hotel."
Kostandaras said the convention bureau lobbied the state legislature to grant authority to charter counties (Summit is the only one) to raise the bed tax by 1 percentage point for capital improvements, which it did.
The revenue generated by the hike would be reserved for capital improvements to the Knight Center, including repairs to the air conditioning and heating system, replacement of worn carpeting and kitchen repairs.
Kostandaras said county hotel operators support the increase. If approved, the increase would be the first for the Knight Center since it opened in 1994.
In other business, the council authorized the Summit County clerk of courts to accept payment via credit cards and debit cards for title fees and court costs.
The legislation establishes a nonrefundable "convenience fee" of 3 percent on each transaction for using such cards, with a minimum charge of $1.
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