fanfish Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 The issue here is the infamous funding gap. If this were resolved we would have a stadium by now. At the latest count it stood at around 80 to 100 million dollars. I don't see any side coming up with the money. Mr. Burgess (Miami-Dade County manager) has often stated that this stalemate needs to be resolved with an infusion of cash from alternative sources, and he mentioned a tax on rental cars or a 1/2 penny sales tax. Everybody and their grandmother believes that a sales tax will not be approved by the public. However a tax on rental cars can pass specially if it set up correctly to avoid significant opposition. If a formula could be devised to assure the rental car companies that they will not suffer significant loses during a limited taxing period, they may not oppose the issue very strongly, thus almost assuring its passage. I am not an expert in these matters, but the money collected with the tax could also be used to offset some profit loss ( say.... up to 70%) the rental car companies could experience. I personally don't think that they would suffer economically since as a traveler to other cities, I pay the hotel and rental car taxes without even noticing them. Someone on this site must know much more that I do about these kinds of deals. I would like to hear your opinions about the idea of offsetting losses to the car companies using the tax itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rferry Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 Absolutly. Although there are certainly some that don't want to bite the hand that feeds them (tourism). But definetly alternative sources of funding must be explored. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fyatuk Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 Absolutly. Although there are certainly some that don't want to bite the hand that feeds them (tourism). But definetly alternative sources of funding must be explored. I can tell you from experience as long as its not an exorbitant amount, no one will care. The AT&T center tax is like 3.5% on hotel/motel and like 5.7% on car rentals or some such (some of the highest in the nation). After a one year drop, visitors and rentals picked up and haven't stopped increasing. I think people would notice it less in Miami than they would here in SA. Although there is resistance to extending the tax for possibly another 3 decades to pay for an MLB stadium... Tourists go where they want to go, and a couple % is not going to change their minds. A large % will, but not a small one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PBMarlin Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 Since the car-rental tax will be applied across the board it would have no effect on profits and be passed along to the consumers. I don't really see how it would affect sales as anyone visiting and needing a car would get one regardless of whether another $1 or so per day were added. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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