May 6--FLORENCE -- Renting a room in the City of Rhododendrons just got a wee bit pricier.

The Florence City Council voted Monday night to hike the transient room tax by 1 percentage point to subsidize the struggling Florence Events Center, which has operated at a deficit since it opened in 1994. Lane County is likely to follow suit with a 1 percentage point increase of its own -- which won't benefit the events center -- meaning a total hit to tourists of 2 percentage points.

The move drew opposition from several area motel and hotel owners, who said the past three months have been their worst in a decade or more, with high gas prices, lousy weather and a recession keeping visitors away from the coast. Now isn't the time to discourage them further, the hospitality representatives said.

"It's choking our industry -- supporting the events center," said Mat Kirbe, who owns a motel just outside of the city. "It's never made money, and now you're going to tax us some more. We're reducing our rates as we speak."

From the start, the Florence Events Center wasn't envisioned as a moneymaker, with its operating costs exceeding the money it brought in from the day it opened.

But Florence officials and the locals who drummed up enough donations to build the center thought it a necessary addition to the community, a place for conferences, concerts and festivals too large for any of the available venues at the time.

The city had inked an agreement with the county that set aside a portion of Florence's share of transient room taxes to pay debt service for the bonds sold to finance the project. After the city refinanced the debt, Lane County commissioners signed off on a deal to use up to $40,000 per year to help pay the center's operating costs.

That's not enough, as it turns out. Even with the subsidy, the events center came up $30,000 short last year, thanks largely to expenses that have risen to $348,000 annually, or about $100,000 more than they were in 2002 and 2003.

The shortfall left the dozens of volunteers who work there scrambling to raise money through donations and the director to slash the marketing budget in response.

The 1 percentage point raise in the transient room tax, which will begin to be collected on July 1, will bring in an additional $40,000 in room tax revenue. That would bring the tax to 9 percent, unless the county decides make the rate equal to what it is in eastern Lane County: 10 percent.

Maurice Souza, who owns the Blue Heron Bed and Breakfast, said he doesn't see much business from the events center and doesn't see why hotel owners should have to subsidize a community asset.

"Most of the people coming to my place are coming to visit Florence, ride the Dunes," Souza said. "I don't think we should continue to support something that's not making money."

Since the opening of an expanded Three Rivers Casino last year, things have only gotten worse for the events center, said Mayor Phil Brubaker. Four events this year that previously were held at the events center have gone to the casino.

That trend is the writing on the wall, said Milt Pepitone, who spoke against the tax increase because it's for entertainment purposes, not the needs of the entire community.

"We've got a police department that needs a police dog. We're not funding that," Pepitone said. "Every street in Florence need repairs. We should not use our tax dollars for entertainment. If there was a huge demand for it, you wouldn't be $40,000 in the hole right now. If the golf course came to you and said 'We're running short on money," you wouldn't give it to them."

Several supporters of the events center chimed in in favor of the tax increase, saying they never ask what the tax rate is when they're booking a hotel and that the events center is a worthy project to subsidize.

Events at the Florence Events Center over the past five years are directly responsible for 10,000 room nights, generating more than $1.6 million in revenue across the community, said Hal Weiner, president of Friends of the Florence Events Center, which raised $10,000 to help with last year's deficit and has pledged to do so again this year.

"The events center will never be self-supporting," said Ann Rule, a longtime volunteer and fundraiser for the project. "The Hult Center isn't self-supporting. The PAC (Performing Arts Center) in Newport isn't self-supporting. But the events center is busy every day. The events center needs to be here forever. There are people who need to have a little culture and entertainment, a little something to look forward to."

Brubaker said he hoped the events center's deficit could be solved if private developers can be persuaded to build a headquarters hotel on available adjacent property. That would allow larger conferences and conventions to take place there, which would bring in more revenue.

At the moment, no such plans are in the works.

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