After much discussion, Commissioners agreed that the City should return 50% of transient occupancy tax (TOT) revenue to the Barlow Hotel so that the development can move forward
This town loves to reduce TOT revenue at all costs! Another comically bad revenue-reducing decision by them. Par for their "Chapter 13, here we come" approach to running the town. If they only treated TOT revenue like they treat our water bills...
When the economy tanks so does tourism. If the Barlow owner couldn't find outside investors then let's call it a day and not suck the money out of the town.
The city council has Got To stop acting like there isn't a financial crises! If they agree to this we are lost. And if they do agree to it I think it's time we start thinking about a class action suit for the extreme mismanagement of the city's finances. The legal fees may very well bankrupt this town but if they continue like this then that's where we're headed anyway.
For 100 room hotels the projected annual TOT is in the range of $213,525 / year to $447,125 / year. This is based on either 150/night or 250/night fees. So it's reasonable and conservative to estimate that Barney's hotel would be in the latter category. So the city just gave away 50% of $4,470,000.00 in TOT revenue to a company that didn't need an iota of "stimulus" to do this deal. That would pay for the new wells and infrastructure we need. This town is run by children who never took a public policy course, never studied commercial real estate, and, essentially, "think with their hearts." So typical.
Moreover the marketing budget for 100 room hotels is in the 80-100K a year range (ask Gemini). So the idea that Barney and crew are going to spend upwards of ~200K a year on marketing is pretty dodgy. Given our town can't even use something as simple and intuitive as time-tracking software, it's impossible to imagine them being able to implement an auditing system to track how little of this money they will actually be spending to "promote tourism." I laughed when I read some of the quotes in this piece. "Promote Tourism" is synonymous with "marketing a hotel." haha
First of all in the projected TOT revenue by the applicant is something I would not even accept. Always get an outside and unbiased review of the estimated TOT revenue. Second why should we give them back 50% of that revenue. The city is in a financial hole. If you want to give them something the maybe 20-25% and the city keep the rest. That way all the extra traffic and city services that are going to be needed that 75% TOT money could be used to shore up what the extra cost those services will need to provide. Especially when the City Counsel wants to return the downtown to two way street traffic.
With regard to the Barlow hotel...seems like Windsor did the same sort of thing not once but a couple times regarding a couple Holiday Inns up there...one of which just recently filed for another bankruptcy or such...and leaving a nearly two million dollar debt. We're supposed to learn from mistakes...uh...aren't we???
The primary benefit of the hotel to local residents is the tax revenue it will generate for our city. What else do we get from this hotel except an acceleration Sebastopol's transition into a playground for rich tourists? It's baffling to me why the commission wants this hotel without the tax tevenue
probably a weird question but what happened to building the hotel in the empty lot and why would we want to give the hotel company half of the tot tax? They have the deep pockets. Also what's happened to the city council giving itself a pay raise?
This town loves to reduce TOT revenue at all costs! Another comically bad revenue-reducing decision by them. Par for their "Chapter 13, here we come" approach to running the town. If they only treated TOT revenue like they treat our water bills...
When the economy tanks so does tourism. If the Barlow owner couldn't find outside investors then let's call it a day and not suck the money out of the town.
The city council has Got To stop acting like there isn't a financial crises! If they agree to this we are lost. And if they do agree to it I think it's time we start thinking about a class action suit for the extreme mismanagement of the city's finances. The legal fees may very well bankrupt this town but if they continue like this then that's where we're headed anyway.
For 100 room hotels the projected annual TOT is in the range of $213,525 / year to $447,125 / year. This is based on either 150/night or 250/night fees. So it's reasonable and conservative to estimate that Barney's hotel would be in the latter category. So the city just gave away 50% of $4,470,000.00 in TOT revenue to a company that didn't need an iota of "stimulus" to do this deal. That would pay for the new wells and infrastructure we need. This town is run by children who never took a public policy course, never studied commercial real estate, and, essentially, "think with their hearts." So typical.
Moreover the marketing budget for 100 room hotels is in the 80-100K a year range (ask Gemini). So the idea that Barney and crew are going to spend upwards of ~200K a year on marketing is pretty dodgy. Given our town can't even use something as simple and intuitive as time-tracking software, it's impossible to imagine them being able to implement an auditing system to track how little of this money they will actually be spending to "promote tourism." I laughed when I read some of the quotes in this piece. "Promote Tourism" is synonymous with "marketing a hotel." haha
First of all in the projected TOT revenue by the applicant is something I would not even accept. Always get an outside and unbiased review of the estimated TOT revenue. Second why should we give them back 50% of that revenue. The city is in a financial hole. If you want to give them something the maybe 20-25% and the city keep the rest. That way all the extra traffic and city services that are going to be needed that 75% TOT money could be used to shore up what the extra cost those services will need to provide. Especially when the City Counsel wants to return the downtown to two way street traffic.
With regard to the Barlow hotel...seems like Windsor did the same sort of thing not once but a couple times regarding a couple Holiday Inns up there...one of which just recently filed for another bankruptcy or such...and leaving a nearly two million dollar debt. We're supposed to learn from mistakes...uh...aren't we???
The primary benefit of the hotel to local residents is the tax revenue it will generate for our city. What else do we get from this hotel except an acceleration Sebastopol's transition into a playground for rich tourists? It's baffling to me why the commission wants this hotel without the tax tevenue
probably a weird question but what happened to building the hotel in the empty lot and why would we want to give the hotel company half of the tot tax? They have the deep pockets. Also what's happened to the city council giving itself a pay raise?