Prior to passing its own iteration of the proposed state budget last week, the Kentucky Senate voted to delete $60 million in bond funding for the expansion and renovation of the Lexington Convention Center.
The amendment that removed the Convention Center project funding from House Bill 303 passed by a vote of 21-16, just before the Senate’s 27-2 vote in favor of the budget, with an additional nine votes to “pass.” The legislation now moves to conference committee, where the House and Senate will work to hash out a suitable compromise.
The $60 million allocation had been included in Gov. Bevin’s proposed budget as an investment partnership, with guaranteed repayment for the state from an additional .5 percent increase to Lexington’s requested 2 percent transient room tax increase. The $60 million in state funding had also been included in the version of the budget passed by the House on March 23.
Meanwhile, the legislative bill authorizing Lexington to raise its transient room tax by 2.5 percent to fund the bulk of the Convention Center project was passed by the House by a vote of 77-13 in early March, but has been stalled in the Senate’s Appropriations & Revenue Committee.
The project would include the addition of a 100,000-square-foot exhibit hall with enhanced meeting rooms, ballroom space and ground level retail. The current economic output for the Center has been estimated at $42 million annually. Studies project the proposed expansion would increase that annual output to $57 million.