Panel cool to raising NLR hotel-room tax

A suggestion made Tuesday for North Little Rock to raise its tax on hotel-room rentals didn’t garner the immediate support of the city’s Advertising and Promotion Commission.

Commissioners didn’t discuss the proposal nor take any action after North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce President Terry Hartwick made a presentation on the subject at the commission’s quarterly meeting. The commission doesn’t meet again until July 15.

The added revenue is needed, Hartwick said, to build a downtown convention and events center, adding that such a tax should remain for operation and maintenance of the center.

North Little Rock’s current hotel-room tax is 2 percent, the same as neighboring Little Rock’s. Hartwick’s proposal is to add 1 percent.

Mayor Joe Smith, a commission member, said after the meeting that he isn’t ready to back the idea.

“I haven’t seen enough numbers to make an educated business decision on whether it’s what’s best for North Little Rock right now,” Smith said. “I like the concept. It’s all about the money.”

The additional tax, if passed by the commission, would need the North Little Rock City Council’s approval as well, but it wouldn’t be required to go to voters. City Aldermen Linda Robinson and Charlie Hight are also commissioners.

Hotel-tax revenue is split between the North Little Rock Visitors Bureau operations and the city Parks and Recreation Department.

Since August, Hartwick has been publicly proposing that a convention center be built at the site of the former and long-vacant Rye Wholesale Furniture Building at Maple and Broadway streets in downtown North Little Rock. The project’s estimated cost has grown from an estimated $6.5 million in August to $11.2 million, according to information provided to commissioners Tuesday.

Hartwick said North Little Rock needs a convention center because the city doesn’t have something smaller than Verizon Arena to accommodate banquets or mid-sized conventions.

“We’re telling people every day, ‘we want you, but we have no place to put you up,’” Hartwick said. “I think we have a chance to do something special that we haven’t done in a long, long time.”

The Rye property, owned privately, was part of a land swap the City Council approved in 2010. That exchange, however, hasn’t been finalized, Smith said, because of environmental problems with one of the city-owned properties included in the swap that haven’t been corrected.