Preckwinkle Formally Proposes Increase In Cook County Hotel Tax
(CBS) -- Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is now formally proposing a one-percent hike in the county hotel tax in place of an earlier amusement tax plan. But the hospitality industry and some commissioners are predicting a calamity, reports WBBM Political Editor Craig Dellimore.
Commissioner Bridget Gainer admits individual travelers may not worry about a one percent increase in the cost of booking a hotel room, but convention planners she says will think about the total tax and turn away.
Podcast
"You have someone whose entire job it is to manage the overall cost of a convention and we're not here just here to say we have a great city you should come and visit us, we're going to be compared across the board to everybody else," Gainer said. "What's our hotel tax? What's our sales tax? And what's the general cost of running a convention here?"
County Board President Toni Preckwinkle scoffs at that logic.
"This is a very modest increase, very modest," she said. "One dollar a night on a motel stay, three or four dollars a night on a stay at Four Seasons. I don't think that's going to discourage anybody from coming to Chicago nor considering Chicago as the site of a convention."
Preckwinkle believes she has the votes to approve the hike this week.
