Anaheim considers asking voters for 2% ticket tax on Disneyland, other venues

 -- "Anaheim considers asking voters for 2% ticket tax on Disneyland, other venues," Orange County Register

From the article:

With Anaheim planning to balance its budget with borrowed money for the next few fiscal years, Councilman Jose Moreno wants to let city voters decide whether to put a 2% tax on tickets to theme parks and other large venues – a move that could potentially raise from $55 million to $82 million a year for city services and projects.

That money could mean building a second public pool, restoring seven-day-a-week library services, hiring more police and firefighters, or building and staffing a dedicated senior center to serve residents, Moreno said.

He’s been trying to get the council to look at a “gate tax” for several years; with the May resignation of former Mayor Harry Sidhu – who with majority support blocked discussion of the issue – now he can. The potential tax measure is on Tuesday’s meeting agenda.

But Anaheim never having charged such a tax before, that it would require voter approval, and that it would need five of the six council members to agree to even put it on the fall ballot, doesn’t point to a clear path forward for the proposal.

While it looks like there are many barriers to success, that Anaheim hasn't been collecting such a tax clearly has cost it a great deal of opportunity for serving its citizens, especially as local jurisdictions in California are seriously hindered in terms of property taxes as a revenue source because of Proposition 13 limits on property valuation for tax purposes.

Traditionally, taxes on accommodations, rental cars, parking, restaurant meals, and other amusements have been seen as an easy way to collect revenues, mostly at the expense of nonresidents.  OTOH, operators of those types of businesses argue that they are excessively taxed and that high prices deter patronage overall, cutting revenue and hurting economic development overall.

In general, admissions taxes are a way for local jurisdictions to cover the costs of dealing with venues, and as a form of economic return for subsidies, etc.

For example, Prince George's County Maryland would net zero off the Washington NFL team and FedEx Stadium, without an admissions tax on tickets.

Unfortunately/1, the admissions tax on events at Capital One Arena in DC isn't a revenue stream for DC but a funding source for arena improvements.

Unfortunately/2, nonprofit cultural institutions often advocate against admissions taxes on ticketed events because they say it makes the price too high, even though such institutions often benefit from grants and other public monies and investments. 

Parking taxes to support community improvements.  Years ago a neighborhood association in the Hill District of Pittsburgh suggested creating a parking tax that would go towards funding local community projects as a mitigation program ("A dollar a car for the Hill," Hill District Consensus Group). 

I think that's a great way to provide mitigation monies to the neighborhoods where such facilities are based, in return for their bearing the brunt of game day problems.

In general, I believe that jurisdictions not charging admissions taxes when they have major event facilities within their communities are definitely missing out to the point of "foolishness" and bad policy making.