Turns Out That Convention Center Tax May Really Be a Tax

The law in California says that if you want to raise taxes to build something like a new Convention Center, you have to get two-thirds of voters to approve it.

Friday, an appellate court ruled that the city of San Diegos clever idea to raise the hotel-room tax, without actually asking voters to approve it, was not legal. And suddenly, the $520 million Convention Center expansion, the largest construction project on the citys docket, was thrown out.

The California Supreme Court is the only entity that can resurrect it.

The legal concern was clear a long time ago. The city was trying to raise a tax without doing the hard things that come with raising a tax.

Over the years, a diverse array of groups has argued it was illegal.

It included the Chargers, who wanted to kill the expansion to combine its momentum with their own stadium dreams. The U-T San Diego editorial board and ownership, with their own stadium dreams, also agreed and criticized the effort.

The hotel workers union thought it was illegal, and made some salient points before unions backed off once a labor agreement for construction was finalized.

And then there was, obviously, attorney Cory Briggs and watchdog Mel Shapiro. They actually did the work to prove it was illegal.

Heres what went wrong for the city.

Former Port Commissioner Steve Cushman and former Mayor Jerry Sanders came up with the plan to expand the Convention Center without a vote. They wanted to raise hotel-room taxes like they had with the Tourism Marketing District, or TMD.

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Turns Out That Convention Center Tax May Really Be a Tax