Oct. 30--Six cities in San Mateo County are looking to boost their hotel tax rates in an effort to balance their budgets without increasing the tax burden on local residents.

Brisbane, Burlingame, Millbrae, San Bruno and San Mateo have placed measures on the ballot to raise their transient-occupancy tax rates from 10 percent to 12 percent. South San Francisco's Measure O would raise that city's hotel tax from 9 percent to 10 percent.

The notion of raising taxes paid by tourists and business travelers has not generated much of a stir among local residents, as there is no organized opposition to Measure F (San Bruno), Measure H (Burlingame), Measure J (Millbrae), Measure M (San Mateo) or Measure O.

In Brisbane, however, a handful of hotel and restaurant executives submitted an argument against Measure G, claiming that increasing the tax will decrease their competitiveness, giving consumers incentives to seek out better deals in other cities.

"It will directly affect me, because one of my businesses is inside a hotel," said George Hawawini, owner of Mangiare and Xebec restaurants, the latter of which is located inside the Radisson, the city's only hotel.

Hawawini said leaving Brisbane's transient-occupancy tax as it is would maintain the Radisson's ability to compete with hotels in neighboring South San Francisco.

Supporters of the tax raises say the increases aren't big enough to dissuade people from staying at any given hotel

on that basis alone. And even with the increases, they argue, the rates wouldn't be as high as San Francisco's hotel tax, which is 14 percent plus a 1 percent to 1.5 percent assessment to fund capital improvements.

"It makes sense to ask visitors to pay their fair share of the cost of traveling our highways and using our public facilities during this time of economic stress for cities," said Burlingame City Councilwoman Terry Nagel.

For more information on the measures, visit www.smartvoter.org/2009/11/03/ca/sm/meas.

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