Texas CSE Calls for Vote on Subsidized Downtown Fort Worth Hotel
Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy today endorsed the efforts of the citizens group, Citizens for Taxpayer Rights, to collect enough signatures to ensure that the City holds a public referendum on plans to issue $130,000,000 in Certificates of Obligation to fund a proposed downtown Fort Worth Convention Center hotel.
“Fort Worth taxpayers deserve to know the details of the City’s plans to build a subsidized convention hotel and restaurant,” said Peggy Venable, director of the 48,000 member Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy. “And no plan should move forward without the approval of the citizens of Fort Worth.”
The City of Fort Worth is in the process of building a 600-room, $130 million hotel downtown complete with a restaurant, health club and 500 parking spaces. Venable pointed out that Fort Worth taxpayers have had no input into the project nor have they been provided opportunity to vote on the taxpayer-subsidized project.
The watchdog group said taxpayers need to be informed on unresolved issues such as cost overruns and the coverage of losses could burden Fort Worth taxpayers. “Whether one supports the hotel or not, most important is the idea that major expenditures such as this should be submitted to the voters for approval,” said Venable, who pointed out that Certificates of Obligation were supposed to be for small, emergency projects.
The group also said building a city-owned hotel complex risks Fort Worth’s tax base stretches limited resources and risks financial security. “The Mayor may want to leave a legacy but a legacy of debt isn’t going to endear him to taxpayers,” said Venable, whose group has over 700 members in the City of Fort Worth.
