Angry about cuts in Kansas City’s budget? Don’t blame the new convention hotel — yet

Kansas Citians angry with spending priorities in the city’s new $1.73 billion budget proposal have an easy target: almost $4.4 million in subsidies for the new Loews convention hotel downtown.

As always, though, easy answers aren’t always correct.

Loews’ shortfall is worrisome. But the subsidies aren’t the reason for less-than-fully funded fare-free bus service, or the inability to pay for more police officers, or $500,000 in proposed cuts for Children’s Mercy Hospital.

Here’s the reality: Most of the money used to backstop the hotel’s shortfall will come from a dedicated tax that can only be used for convention-related expenses.

Mayor Quinton Lucas may have left Kansas Citians with a different impression when he unveiled his budget less than two weeks ago. The city was “blindsided” by the Loews hotel funding gap, he said.

“The oft-mentioned convention center hotel adds a $4.4 million bill for the city,” the mayor said on Facebook.

Don’t be misled. Of that $4.4 million shortfall, Lucas said Monday, more than $2.6 million will actually come from the Convention and Sports Tourism fund, a dedicated bank account that gets most of its money from a restaurant tax.

The restaurant tax will bring in more than $27 million this year. It can only be spent on convention and tourism activities — not police, or fire or anything else.

Using $2.6 million for the hotel will mean cuts in other convention-related spending such as VisitKC and the arts, Lucas said. But that has nothing to do with the fare-free bus discussion or other general city spending for police and potholes.

We supported the convention hotel deal, and we still do. “It has the potential to be a huge victory for Kansas City, wooing out-of-town spenders, boosting overall convention numbers and continuing downtown’s revival,” The Star Editorial Board wrote before construction began. That’s still true.

Kansas Citians are rightly nervous about the slump in hotel occupancy, and should continue to oppose public subsidies for a luxury hotel near the Kauffman Performing Arts Center. But the Loews hotel should be given the chance to open its doors before panic sets in.

Loews officials may meet with Lucas this week to discuss these issues. The hotel rightly wants to avoid being a political scapegoat, and its representatives say they’ve kept every promise they made to the city when the hotel was on the drawing board.

Let’s be clear: There is a chance the city’s taxpayers will have to come up with as much as $1.7 million for Loews if the convention business falls disastrously short this year. If that happens, the City Council should find other revenue sources, such as the restaurant tax, that don’t impact city services.

For now, though, cuts to health services, the bus service shortfall, and other spending priorities must be judged on their own terms. Blaming the new hotel is convenient, but it is not fair. Not yet.