Both sides wrangling over the future of a planned hotel near the Oregon Convention Center were pressing forward this week after a court ruled that the hotel's finance plan couldn't go on the ballot.
On Monday, Multnomah County Judge Eric Bloch ruled that opponents of the proposed Hyatt project couldn't ask Multnomah County voters to override the county commission's approval of a finance plan for the hotel.
The commission voted in December to approve a change to the way the county spends its tourism tax dollars – a change that included allowing room taxes, collected on visitors to the Hyatt, to pay off about $60 million of the hotel's construction costs.
Opponents said they collected about 20,000 signatures from Multnomah County's 280,850 active voters, enough to get the referendum on the ballot.
Bloch ruled that the commission's vote was an administrative reorganization of the tourism tax, not new legislation, and thus couldn't be referred to the voters.
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"In much the same way that executive and administrative decisions determine the specific 'driver and motor vehicle services' for which gas tax revenues may be expended, Ordinance 1206 … simply implements yet one more administrative determination by the Commissioners regarding how tourism related revenues" will be spent in the Portland area, Bloch wrote.
In his ruling, he preached patience, and said opponents still had options.
"While the mechanisms for redress envisioned by the drafters of Oregon's governance structures may seem somewhat slow and cumbersome in today's world of immediacy and hyper-connectivity," Bloch wrote, "no small part of the wisdom behind these mechanisms is to permit both the people, and those who govern, the time and space to enable good decision making, be it in the council chamber or at the ballot box."
Opponents of the project's finance plan could still file for an initiative to block the project, which would require more signatures to be gathered. They could also appeal Bloch's ruling.
Paige Richardson, a spokeswoman for the Coalition for Fair Budget Priorities, which opposes the hotel's finance plan, said her group will take some time before making a decision how to proceed. But, she said, the group will find a path forward.
"If anything we're more energized now," Richardson said. "We support a convention center hotel, we just want a deal that is smarter and less risky for taxpayers. Some of our key members sat on the RFP committee and agreed with the original RFP, if it had stuck to anywhere close to that. But Metro took it from $8 million to $80 million in public subsidy and left us at risk if the hotel underperforms."
Metro officials disputed that account, saying that the original Request for Proposals included a rebate of room tax revenue as a potential finance tool. They said Provenance Hotels president Bashar Wali, a member of both the Coalition and the RFP review committee, voted to move the Hyatt proposal forward, even when it included $26.1 million in direct public subsidy plus the room tax rebate.
In the end, the finance plan calls for $18 million in direct public investment in the $198 million project. Another $60 million in bonds would be paid back by room taxes on visitor stays at the hotel, a finance plan that Metro says could survive recessions similar to those in 2001 and 2009.
In exchange for the public investment, Hyatt and its partners would spend about $120 million building the hotel, ensure a fair shot for union labor, hire minority and women-owned contractors, build expansive ballrooms at the site and keep more than 80 percent of the hotel's rooms blocked off, long-term, for recruiting potential large conventions.
Negotiations are ongoing on specific terms for building the hotel and managing that block of 500 rooms for recruiting large conventions.
Metro spokeswoman Stephanie Soden said she wouldn't comment on speculation about the Coalition's next move.
In a statement after Bloch's ruling, Metro Council President Tom Hughes urged that the process move forward.
"We have been diligent in crafting a solid proposal that poses no risks to residents but provides an invaluable upside for years to come," Hughes said. "It's time to get this project done."