The easiest tax to support is one you will never pay. And no, I’m not talking about the billionaire tax. Raising the Transient Occupancy Tax, the “ToT”, is on our ballot in five weeks and as the DJ editorial says, it’s a “no brainer”. The rationale may not always be solid as in “hey, revenue is down so we must raise the tax rate”, but that’s the story and supporters are sticking with it. From the DJ

Before COVID, the city collected approximately $30 million in revenue from the 12% hotel tax. In its last budget, the city showed it collected approximately $23 million. Before COVID, the hotel tax provided about 35% of the city’s revenue and the most recent budget showed it provided about 23% of the city’s $93 million annual general fund budget.

There might be other new revenues in the denominator of the 23% ratio like Facebook and the other new businesses along Old Bayshore. Maybe auto sales are up–the prices certainly are. The claim is the average room rate on the B’game bayfront is $200, but a bit of Gemini searching yields more like $300-350 and big conventions in the city take it up from there. 15% of $300 is $45/night–a better way to think about it than the editorial saying it’s an incremental $6 per night. It’s easier to say neighboring cities’ ToTs are higher so just level us up. Prop. D stands for just Do it. Nobody voting for it will ever pay it.