Overview
- The City Council Finance Committee advanced an ordinance allowing participating hotels to add a 1.5 percentage-point charge, which would push combined guest charges in the district to about 19% pending full council approval.
- The fee would apply to hotels with 100 or more rooms that opt in within a designated area covering parts of roughly 14 wards, including Downtown, McCormick Place, the Illinois Medical District and Hyde Park.
- Choose Chicago estimates the plan would raise about $40 million annually, or roughly $269 million over five years, for marketing, incentives and bid fees to attract major events.
- An 11-member board of hotel operators would approve spending with non-voting labor and city representatives, and the district would sunset after five years unless renewed; hotel owners could vote to end the charge if results lag.
- Industry, labor and business groups voiced strong support, while Ald. David Moore cast the lone no vote over potential costs to residents and Finance Chair Pat Dowell sought clearer spending specifics.