Kirkwood's new hotel school will generate $150,000 in hotel/motel tax revenue a year; who should get it?

It remains to be seen if Kirkwood Community College and City Hall will think the same about what is a much-coveted source of local funds, revenue from the 7-percent hotel/motel tax.

This summer, the college will open The Hotel at Kirkwood Center, “the largest and most comprehensive teaching/learning hotel at a community college in the United States,” Mick Starcevich, Kirkwood's president, explains in a letter to the City Council.

Starcevich notes that the new hotel is expected to generate $150,000 in hotel/motel tax revenue for the city, and he now is asking the council to pass that revenue along to the Kirkwood Foundation. There is will be used as a catalyst for economic development, to help support the school's tuition assistance program and to provide some scholarship help.

We'll see.

The City Council dispenses some $2.5 million in hotel/motel revenue that comes into the city now, with about half of the amount going to support two tourist-related efforts, the city's U.S. Cellular Center and the local convention and visitors bureau. The money also goes to pay off ongoing debt at the city's Ice Arena and at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, and a large assortment of local non-profit groups and others compete for what is left.

At a recent city budget meeting, the Kirkwood request was mentioned in passing, and Mayor Ron Corbett suggested that the new hotel/motel revenue from the new Kirkwood facility wouldn't necessarily be redirected back to Kirkwood.

Corbett also has suggested that the competition in the city for hotel/motel funds is apt to only grow stronger.