LOS ANGELES — San Diego city attorney Jan Goldsmith said he may file suit to block a ballot initiative that would raise hotel taxes for a convention center expansion.
The San Diego Chargers football team and attorney Cory Briggs, have introduced competing downtown citizens’ initiatives to pay for projects.
The city attorney’s report cited legal concerns over matters such as control over tax payer money in Briggs’ initiative, which proposed a convention center annex away from the waterfront. The Chargers plan would expand the convention center and adds a new football stadium at a cost of $1.8 billion.
“While there are some well-intentioned ideas in [Briggs’] proposal, the city attorney’s analysis shows that this appears to be a plan that could tie up the city in court for years at great cost to taxpayers,” San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer said, after Goldsmith released the
Briggs questioned the timing the report’s release by Goldsmith.
“The city attorney has yet to explain why it took his office more than four months to analyze the Citizens’ Plan, which has been in the public’s hands since last October,” Briggs said.
According to Briggs, the city attorney waited until the day a poll appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune showing that “94% of a whopping 44,000-plus respondents said they agreed with the Citizens’ Plan’s vision for Mission Valley to announce his intention to disenfranchise the voters and make sure they never have a say in the matter.”
Both proposals would increase hotel taxes. The team’s plan involves issuing $1.15 billion in tax exempt bonds and raising hotel taxes to 16.5% from 12.5%. Brigg’s proposal increases hotel taxes to 15.5%.
The mayor said he is currently reviewing the Chargers’ plan and hasn’t taken a position, though he expressed enthusiasm about keeping the team in the city.
“After more than a decade, the Chargers are putting forward a plan of their own and San Diegans may finally have the ultimate say on a new stadium in November,” Faulconer said. “The convention center element makes this proposal more than a stadium and the long term future of San Diego’s tourism economy is now intertwined in this plan.”
It would be beneficial to the team’s proposals if Brigg’s plan didn’t make the November ballot.
Briggs dismissed the idea that the similarities between the two proposals could cause voter confusion.
“Assuming both initiatives end up on the ballot, the voters are perfectly capable of considering each campaign’s educational information and making an informed decision,” Briggs said. “Giving the public more options and debating them publicly, rather than working behind the scenes to limit their options, strikes me as a good thing.”
Goldsmith’s report said the Briggs plan would give hoteliers improper control of the city tax money and violate the state initiative law by addressing more than one central issue.
“None of the legal issues in the memo has any validity, especially the one about giving the hoteliers control,” Briggs said. The measure would give them economic incentives, not the keys to the city, he said.
The city attorney also raised concerns about a “poison pill” embedded in the initiative where if one part of the initiative is found illegal then the entire thing would be thrown out.
Goldsmith said the risk inherent in that aspect would make it difficult or impossible to sell bonds for convention center construction that would be paid by the additional revenue from the hotel tax increase.
Briggs’ Citizens’ Plan covers a lot of ground. It would help finance an off-the-waterfront convention center facility and pave the way for an expansion of San Diego State on the Qualcomm site in Mission Valley.
