City’s tourism grant proposal is no slam dunk
“Colorado Springs was the only city to apply for a state sales tax rebate award, but that does not guarantee the city win the award, or that the tax rebates would be enough to pay for project funding.
The city submitted an application Monday for a Regional Tourism Act tax rebates that would allow the city to create a type of Tax Increment Financing district to support four proposed projects.
Those projects include: a new downtown multiuse stadium that would be the home of Sky Sox baseball team; a U.S. Olympic museum near America the Beautiful Park; an Air Force Academy visitors center, and a university sports medicine and performance center on North Nevada Avenue, as part of a larger health and wellness village.
A proposal submitted by the city estimates that the creation of the four projects would generate $82 million in new sales tax revenues from additional tourist dollars. The sale tax rebates to the city would not come from existing, or reoccurring, state funds. Instead, the money would be returned to Colorado Springs as a percentage of only new sales tax revenues specifically generated by the four new projects, said Jeff Kraft, director of Business Funding and Incentives for the Office of Economic Development and International Trade for the state.”
Hunter, Ned. The Gazette 9 July 2013.