Bettendorf's hotel/motel sales tax revenue fell to a 15-year low in fiscal 2012, and gambling tax revenue paid the city is off 29 percent from its peak in 2004.
The falling hotel/motel sales tax and gambling revenue echo a similar decline in Isle of Capri casino admissions over the past 11 years, and the peaking of casino revenues in 2004.
For fiscal year 2012 ended June 30, city hotel/motel sales tax totaled $738,000, down nearly $70,000 from the hotel/motel sales tax in 1998, and are off 16 percent from 2008.
The $1.61 million collected by the city in gambling tax revenue in fiscal 2012 was the lowest the city has received since 1999, and is down 29 percent from the peak of $2.27 million in gambling tax revenue in fiscal 2008.
A new city surcharge -- assessed when complimentary rooms at the Isle of Capri hotels exceed 50 percent occupancy -- has help to offset some of the overall decline in hotel/motel tax revenues over the past four years.
A provision in the 2006 city/Isle development agreement, adding a surcharge on hotel rooms given away by the Isle if the number of complimentary rooms exceed 50 percent, resulted in collections in the past four fiscal years of $16,613, $46,354, $45,084 and $47,485, respectively.
The decline in hotel/motel tax revenue (collected by the Iowa Department of Revenues and paid the city) comes despite the opening of the second 258-room Isle of Capri hotel in July 2007, and the opening of the city owned Quad City Waterfront Convention Center in April 2009. Both had been expected to boost tourism by drawing visitors from outside the Quad City region to attend entertainment events and conventions at the new events center and to use local hotels.
The opening of the second Isle hotel in 2007 helped increase overall city hotel/motel sales tax revenues to a high of $879,000 in the fiscal year following its opening, but the recession and a steady decline in casino admissions have hurt hotel occupancy over the past five years.
The Iowa Department of Revenue collects the city hotel/motel sales tax on all hotels and motels in the city and distributes it back to the city. It does not provide a breakdown of sales tax paid by each hotel operator.
The comping of high numbers of rooms at the Isle hotels also could be hurting overall hotel/motel sales tax revenues, even though the new city surcharge in the last four years has helped to offset some of that decline.
When the original 256-room Lady Luck Hotel opened in September 1998, the city hotel/motell sales tax revenues jumped from $805,000 in fiscal 1998 to $875,658 in fiscal 1999.
Bettendorf began charging a 4 percent hotel/motel tax in 1984. The rate was increased to 5 percent in 1985 and to its current 7 percent in 1992.
The city's gambling tax revenue is collected by the state and distributed to the city. It amounts to a one-half of one percent cut of the state tax on the Bettendorf Isle of Capri Casino's riverboat gambling revenues.
