Room tax doesn’t rest well with hotels

Erin Neff

Friday, March 28, 2003 | 9:07 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Assemblyman Harry Mortenson, D-Las Vegas, opened testimony on his own tax proposal Thursday by saying his room tax bill is "less bad than the rest."

Still, his proposal to enact a $3-per-night room tax drew fierce opposition from visitors and convention bureaus, the chief executives of major hotel and the owners of small hotels alike. But Mortenson just sees his proposal as a small part of any overall tax package, and potentially one to offset some of the smaller proposed taxes he does not like.

"Keep this in the background and when you find the ones you dislike the most, substitute this one," Mortenson said.

Mortenson said he considers the amusement tax the worst and said: "If you pulled my fingernails out and lit my hair on fire, I wouldn't vote for that one."

That's the same way that Atlantis hotel chief executive John Farahi feels about the proposed room tax.

"It's fatal," Farahi said.

Rossi Ralenkotter, executive vice president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said increasing room rates would further hurt the state's leading industry already affected by the war with Iraq.

But Assemblyman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, pointed out that while the LVCVA and its Reno counterpart were using the economy to oppose the tax now, they had also fought against the concept in 1999, at the height of the nation's economic boom.