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Lodging tax tabled by council By Myles Murphy Ashland Daily Tidings Discussion of a proposal to reduce the percentage of city hotel-motel taxes going to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Chamber of Commerce has been temporarily taken off the table to allow for private discussions between affected parties. "We didn't get it together soon enough to talk to the festival and the chamber," Ashland City Councilor Don Laws said. "They have thoughts on alternatives we should talk about." A resolution was brought to the council Tuesday by councilors Cate Hartzell and Laws, who proposed a shift in the way the city spends hotel and motel taxes on economic and cultural development grants - much of which go to OSF and the chamber for marketing uses. Economic and Cultural Development Grants are generated by Ashland's hotel and motel tax. Under the proposal, the hotel-motel tax money received by OSF would drop from 28 percent to 23 percent, and the amount going to the Ashland Chamber of Commerce would fall from 60 percent to 55 percent. The extra 10 percent freed up by the shift would go to funding ways to increase the capacity of public transportation in the city. Without the changes, about $121,000 will go to OSF and about $260,000 to the chamber this year. When the item was removed from the council agenda Tuesday, it was also removed from the public eye, as Hartzell, Laws and Councilor John Morrison were picked to talk separately with chamber and festival leaders about the issue, then bring information from that meeting back to the council. Under Oregon Public Meetings law, if fewer than a quorum of members of a public body gather, the meeting is not subject to public meeting rules, skirting requirements for public notice of the meeting and allowing them to keep members of the media out. For the Ashland City Council, four members make a quorum, according to the Ashland City Charter. OSF Director Paul Nicholson was pleased at the chance to give private input to members of the council outside the regularly scheduled public meeting Tuesday - a meeting which ended at least an hour earlier than usual because the item was tabled. "The council might have acted precipitously on something," Nicholson said. "The wrong decision might have been made." Nicholson had no comment on the proposed shift in funding. The small group will meet April 7, with the intention of returning any new information to the council before the April 24 full budget committee meeting. If that deadline is missed, any changes will likely have to wait until next budget cycle. In other business, the council: held a public hearing on proposed changes to city annexation and zone change rules to encourage the creation of affordable housing; approved termination of an easement on 1322 Seena Lane; adopted the 2003-2004 council goals; and, authorized the sale of surplus property valued at more than $10,000. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -