The Ames Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and the ISU Administration succeeded in annoying student leaders on both sides of the political spectrum.

On April 15, Stacy Walshire, chair of the ISU Democrats and I issued a joint statement urging students to vote against the proposed hotel/motel tax increase. Since this statement came out, the citizens of Ames and the ISU community have witnessed a campaign of disinformation and lies by proponents of this tax.

Those who encourage you to vote “yes” tell you that tax revenue will be used for upgrading the Hilton Coliseum by increasing ADA accessibility, creating more restrooms for women and improving fire safety. This is a blatant lie! Absolutely no tax revenue will go towards funding these projects. The money is already there without the tax. The Hilton Bond Reserve, FEMA grants and Iowa State Center retained earnings provide all the capital necessary to pay for them. What the tax revenue would pay for is a seat expansion for basketball games, concerts and events.

The Proposal for the Expansion and Renovation of Hilton Coliseum, which is available in Murray Blackwelder’s office, states that one of the goals of the seat expansion is to “increase the seating capacity of the arena to remain the touring venue of choice in the state of Iowa and to provide additional seating for athletic events which would benefit that department in terms of potential increased booster club memberships and ticket sales.”

The “yes” campaign and the athletic department are also saying that they will not gain ANY new revenue from the seat expansion because “they do not sell out now.” This begs the question: Why build the seats?

Still more misinformation is the “yes” campaign’s claim that we will no longer be competitive without these seats. Again, a lie. Acts don’t come to Hilton because it is such a wonderful facility, they come here because Ames is a central location in the state and because we have 25,000 college students. Unless tuition goes up too high and we lose all the students, Hilton is still going to be a premier facility in the state.

Elton John’s promoter was recently quoted in the Ames Tribune as saying that they would not be coming back to Ames because they could not guarantee a sellout. Last year there were seven events at Hilton, and TWO were sellouts.

These people are having a tough time selling the seats that we currently have, so why build more? Are the “yes” people, in their generosity, interested in providing more empty seats for the entertainers to look at while performing?

The administration has chosen to insult the students of ISU by offering them 186 seats for basketball games, contingent on passing the tax referendum. This insinuates that the student vote can be bought.

According to the ISU homepage, there are 25,585 students enrolled this semester. If you are an incoming freshman and you put your name on a waiting list for one of those 186 seats, it would take you NINE YEARS to get one of those seats. That is just for one seat; if you want to take a date, you are out of luck. You can get a Ph.D in less time than that!

The flyers of the “yes” campaign state “Pay Nothing, Get More, Vote Yes.” These are the same flyers that lie to you about the ADA and fire safety improvements. Who pays? Our friends and families do if they want to come down and see us for a weekend. Alumni (even the big donors) do if they want to drive here for a football or basketball game. Prospective students will if they stay overnight for a campus visit.

There is also no sunset legislation on the referendum, meaning that once the seats are paid for, the tax is still there. It will not go away. Taken in all, the Hilton referendum is a bad idea. Some student “leaders” fearful of angering the administration have signed onto a dumb idea. They should start worrying about what is best for the ISU students and the Ames community rather than trying to build their resume and get their picture taken with quasi-public officials. I encourage all ISU students to reject the lies and send a message to the administration and certain student “leaders” that you refuse to be lied to and vote NO on the Hilton referendum.

Steve Erickson

Senior

History

Chairman, ISU Campus Republicans