Saskatoon city council to discuss revenue streams to fund new arena
Global News
A report will be discussed at Saskatoon governance and priorities committee Wednesday around possible revenue streams for the entertainment district.
Saskatoon’s potential Downtown Event and Entertainment District could see five revenue options supporting the development of the project, potentially raising as much as $21 million annually.
A report from KPMG, which will be looked over at Wednesday’s governance and priorities committee meeting, addresses non-property tax revenue options including an accommodations tax, facility fee, tax-increment financing, vehicle rental tax and parking fee adjustments.
It said that if each revenue tool was utilized it could generate $6.7 million a year on the low end and $21.4 million a year on the high end.
The accommodations tax would see a mandatory charge applied to short-term hotel stays, but city administration said amendments would be needed to the Cities Act to implement such a tax.
An additional one-per cent tax increase would generate $1.6 million annually, a two-per cent increase would raise that to $3.1 million, and a three-per cent increase would bring in $4.7 million annually.
A facility fee would see a charge applied to event tickets, with the options of charging a percentage of the ticket price or a fixed rate.
The report said a $4.50 charge to a ticket could generate $2.3 million annually, a $6 per ticket charge could raise $3 million and a $7.50 increase could make $3.7 million per year.
Tax-increment financing would see property tax revenue broken down into a base stream and a growth stream.