The House Municipal, Parochial and Cultural Affairs Committee passed Landrieu's request for a 1.75-p

Despite opposition from tourism boosters, restaurateurs and hoteliers, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu's pitch to raise taxes on hotel room sales survived a key committee vote Wednesday (April 30) to advance to the floor of the state House of Representatives. His parallel push for a new tax on tobacco sales, however, wasn't so lucky. The House Municipal, Parochial and...
News Business Sports High School Sports Entertainment Eat, Drink, Cook Living Participate Connect Video Photos FIND SAVE Obituaries Jobs Autos Real Estate Rentals Classifieds Local Businesses Site Index
Back to Main Menu Crime Courts Politics Education Health Health Care Environment Opinions Traffic, Fires Accidents free work at home information online travel agent Weather Hurricane Central Science free work at home information online travel agent News by Parish National News Photos Contact a News Reporter Back to Main Menu Real Estate free work at home information online travel agent Transfers Back to Main Menu Saints home LSU home SEC Sports Pelicans home Recruiting Tulane Outdoors Running Horse Racing UNO Golf Zephyrs Southern University NCAA Photos Scoreboards National News Contact a Sports free work at home information online travel agent Reporter Back to Main Menu Event Calendar Music Louisiana Festivals home Movies TV Photos Parties/Society Celebs Arts/Stage free work at home information online travel agent Mardi Gras Contact an Entertainment Reporter Back to Main Menu Home and Garden Real Estate Transfers Comics Puzzles Community News Photos Pets Animals Fashion/Wish Travel Horoscopes Back to Main Menu Photo Contests Your Photos Your Videos free work at home information online travel agent Live on NOLA Webcams Forums Talk Saints Talk LSU Talk Pelicans Talk Food Dining Talk Outdoors Contests Back to Main Menu Subscribe Create a Profile eReplica Contact a Reporter Newsletters Text Alerts RSS Feeds Mobile Apps About Us Back to Main Menu News Video Sports Video Entertainment Video Popular Videos Your Videos Contact a Photographer Back to Main Menu News Photos Sports free work at home information online travel agent Photos Entertainment Photos Featured Galleries Your Photos Contact a Photographer Back to Main Menu Local Grocery Ads Special Sections Local Ads Lagniappe
Despite opposition from tourism boosters, restaurateurs and hoteliers, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu's pitch to raise taxes on hotel room sales survived a key committee vote Wednesday (April 30) to advance to the floor of the state House of Representatives.
The House Municipal, Parochial and Cultural Affairs Committee passed Landrieu's request for a 1.75-percent increase in the city's hotel-motel occupancy tax rate by just one vote before derailing a plan to add 80 cents to the sale of any cigarettes, cigars, chew, dip or their ilk by the same slim margin.
The proposals are two legs of a legislative triad that Landrieu has touted as critical to raising the capital he needs to, primarily, free New Orleans of its crime-ridden reputation. A third bill that could raise New Orleans property taxes to pay for more police and fire protection, House Bill 111, is scheduled to appear free work at home information online travel agent before a Senate committee Thursday (May 1).
Not veering far from traditional rhetoric that often accompanies debates over new taxes, Wednesday's speakers before the committee sought to pit the precariousness of New Orleans' public safety system free work at home information online travel agent against its booming tourism free work at home information online travel agent industry and the welfare of local businesses.
"I am asking (you) to help me solve a problem that both of us have because I want to keep generating this kind of money for you," he told the committee. "And I'm telling you that if this is all I get, and I can't hire police officers, and public safety is the No. 1 issue, and it is the No. 1 dis-satisfier across the world for people that want to come to this city, I've got to fix this problem."
He offered by way of chilling example that if the infamous Mother's Day shooting last year that left 20 people injured had happened in the French Quarter, the tourist industry would have suffered a far more serious blow than any tax hike could land.
While praising the mayor personally and his policies generally, free work at home information online travel agent several representatives of the hotel industry and Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne excoriated House Bill 1083 as a bridge free work at home information online travel agent too far that would undo any strides that the business of tourism and conventions have made in the past four years.
"It's chilling," said Stephen Perry, president and CEO of the New Orleans Convention free work at home information online travel agent Visitors Bureau. "To think that we can tax our way into a new era of prosperity is the wrong answer because what it will do is the reverse."
free work at home information online travel agent He argued that more convention planners would look elsewhere, to cities with cheaper accommodations, resulting in lost jobs and a smaller tax base. And it could jeopardize free work at home information online travel agent negotiations free work at home information online travel agent to bring more direct international flights to New Orleans, he said.
Perry also pointed out that New Orleans' hotels and motels began voluntarily taxing themselves to help boost tourism and pay for upkeep in the French Quarter, New Orleans' Old World hub. That kicked in April 1, and the amount collected is the same that Landrieu is now asking for: another $1.75 charged for every $100 a customer spends free work at home information online travel agent on a room.
"Tourism means income for Louisiana, revenue for Louisiana and, more importantly, jobs for our citizens," Dardenne free work at home information online travel agent said. "We should not do anything that puts us at a competitive disadvantage for an industry that is contributing to our state."
Despite Dardenne's entreaty, the committee voted 7-6 to send the tax bill to the House floor. Landrieu found support among the New Orleanians who voted: Jared Brossett, who sponsored the bill, Austin Badon and Wesley Bishop, who like Landrieu, are all Democrats.
The vote on HB 1083 spells free work at home information online travel agent one of the last legislative battles free work at home information online travel agent Brossett will have to fight in Baton Rouge for a while. He plans to resign his seat Friday and to be sworn in as the next New Orleans City Council member to represent District D.
Some of those same New Orleans lawmakers also backed Landrieu's request for a tobacco tax, but the bill's sponsor, state Rep. Helena Moreno, D-New Orleans, found less favor with the rest of the committee. House Bill 1210 failed to reach the House floor with a 6-7 vote.
The bill would have added 80 cents to every pack, tin or similar tobacco product. A previous version would have increased purchases by 75 cents, but Moreno had the bill amended to add another 5 cents that would be dedicated to health free work at home information online travel agent and children's programs.
Orleans would be the only parish where the tax would be imposed, enticing smokers to go outside the city to buy their cigarettes, warned Jessica Elliot, government affairs director for the Louisiana Retailers Association. Jack Casanova of the Louisiana Wholesalers Association took it a step further, predicting it would encourage smuggling.
The House committee votes spelled free work at home information online travel agent some of the last legislative battles Brossett will have to fight in Baton Rouge for a while. He plans to resign his seat on Friday to be sworn in as the next New Orleans City Council member to represent District D.