Hickey confirmed UTSA would ask for $50 million from the county to help fund an on-campus athletics complex.

UTSA is expected to deliver the message at her presentation to a county athletics facilities committee hearing Sept. 25.

The UTSA athletics complex is planned as a facility to be shared by the university and the community.

Now exactly how would the facility be shared by the community? Would Bexar County get a cut of admissions or concessions? Would non-UTSA sports programs be allowed to use the facilities? At what price?

For some reason, I have a feeling that when they talk about sharing with the community, they are going to tell us how much the community will benefit from fans coming to see UTSA play and therefore, the county should use the “visitor” tax to fund the facilities.

I don’t have any problem with UTSA having a football team. I do have a problem with the county coughing up the money to pay for the privilege to have the opportunity to buy season tickets. Isn’t that what we have the Spurs for?

Technorati Tags: UTSA, football, Bexar County, visitor tax, University of Texas at San Antonio

The committees were given a heads-up by consultant Michael Sculley that the venue tax would now be referred to as the “visitor tax” to remind local voters that tourists, not residents, will pay it.

“Visitor tax,” you gotta love it. People in San Antonio figure it’s okay to tax people for infrastructure as long as they don’t live here.

So if it’s a “visitor” tax, does that mean locals don’t have to pay it? As Dig ad veritas pointed out, if you have to rent a car, you’re paying it no matter what county you live in.

This is the perfect opportunity for Nelson Wolff or Diane Cibrian to make some quick political hay by advocating for a local resident exemption. If you show proof of residency, they don’t charge the tax. Or maybe you can submit your receipts at the end of the year and get a refund.

Apparently it’s quite okay for area politicians to spend the public’s money as long as it isn’t their public’s money.

MySA.com: Metro | State

Then County Judge Nelson Wolff, who is spearheading the effort, told each group to prioritize a list of projects, starting with the assumption that they would each have roughly a quarter of the $250 million figure he’s using as an estimate of what could be brought in over the next 20 to 30 years.

Aren’t we lucky that Wolff has once again refused the salary increase he is entitled to as commissioner? Do you think he would have accepted it if it had come from the “visitor” tax?

If nothing else, a local exemption would be interesting to see what percentage of the visitor tax is actually generated by locals. Bet it’s much higher than anyone would care to admit.

Technorati Tags: visitor tax, venue tax, Nelson Wolff, hotel tax, Michael Scully, tax relief