Meetings of the Finance Committee of the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority are always interesting. This is where the expenditure of OUR taxpayer dollars is discussed, with the recommendations of the Finance Committee to be acted upon by the entire LCCCA board.
The LCCCA Finance Committee meeting held on Monday, October 26, 2009 at 7:00 PM inside the Show Manager’s Office of the Lancaster County Convention Center brought out some interesting points. For example, the operational loss of the facility to date totals $331,064. Interestingly, this is below budget, primarily because of the hotel and convention center’s delayed opening (there can be no operational costs when the facility is not operating). This means that even though revenue from the “hotel tax” is down more than six percent year to date over last year, there is no immediate need for additional tax revenue.
Unfortunately, actual energy costs have been much higher than anticipated before the facility opened for business. And other expenses have been much higher than expected: for example, it was anticipated that three full-time employees would be enough to keep the entire integrated facility clean (with the exception of the kitchen and guest rooms); the reality is that six full-time employees have been kept on staff to fill the actual need. As a result, the facility’s profit margin is far lower than had been planned.
Construction costs are still coming in, and most likely will be through the end of 2009. It is currently anticipated that the final cost of construction for the convention center and its portion of the “shared space” will be over budget by approximately $939,453. This could POSSIBLY be partially offset by savings of up to about $300,000 because bids for many items purchased as “Furniture, Fixtures, and Equipment” (FF&E) cost less than the amount budgeted for them.
The saga of the taxpayer-financed hotel and convention center project in downtown Lancaster, PA is just beginning. One thing is certain: how our tax dollars are spent will continue to be very interesting.
