City’s Share of Room Tax Would See Big Increase

Room tax to city coffers would increase from 1.5 to 30 percent

A plan for city hall to grab a far bigger chunk of room tax money in La Crosse has cleared its first hurdle.

The city council finance committee has agreed to a reallocation plan that would increase the cut of room tax for city government  from 1.5 to 30 percent, which works out to an addition of $600,000 in next year’s budget.

The city’s Room Tax Commission, in accordance with a recent change in state law, would determine how to spend the rest. 

Mayor Tim Kabat says he’ll recommend to the Commission to split the rest evenly between the La Crosse Center and the Convention and Visitors Bureau, so each would get about $740,000.  

Kabat says that will actually result in a slight increase going to the CVB because of a big projected boost in room tax revenue for next year citywide.  He also calls that projection, “conservative.”