October 3, 2024

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Council should focus on housing, not hotels

Council should focus on housing, not hotels

Over the past few weeks, the Newport City Council has spent a substantial amount of its time discussing the authorization of a Tourism Improvement District. This discussion conflated the district with other travel- and tourism-related efforts of the city, like our Sister City Program and Discover Newport, but it is distinctly different.

Newport’s Tourism Improvement District is simply a special taxing district established to finance and run marketing campaigns for hotels in the city. I believe the district should be allowed to manage itself without the interference of elected officials and that our council should instead be focused on more pressing issues that impact residents’ quality of life.

More:Newport’s tourism industry had a record-setting year. How it happened.

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