Divvying up Stadium Check in Santa Clara

The Santa Clara City Council will begin discussing the  process of assessing a 2 percent hotel tax to generate revenue for the proposed stadium for the San Francisco 49ers next to the Great America theme  park at Tuesday night's meeting.
     
Deputy city manager Carol McCarthy said the meeting will be the  start of the process to establish the community facilities district with the participation of the hotels within the district.

If approved, hotel guests at the eight hotels within the district would be required to pay an additional 2 percent tax on their bill, McCarthy  said. The tax would not affect the city's 9.5 percent transient occupancy tax, she said.

The tax would be used to generate $35 million of the $937 million needed for the 68,500-seat stadium. The 49ers have agreed to raise $493  million and another $330 million would be generated by stadium authority and  through vendor contracts, McCarthy said.

The tax would be applied to the eight hotels in the vicinity of  the proposed stadium, which combined make up 70 percent of the city's 3,800 hotel rooms.

The hotels within the community facilities district are the Hyatt Regency, Santa Clara Hilton, Santa Clara Marriott, Avatar Hotel, The Plaza Suites, Embassy Suites, Biltmore Hotel and Hotel Sierra.

In May, the Council will decide on the question of issuing bonds for the community facilities district.
     
The stadium proposal will go before voters in the June 8 primary election.