Metro hires attorney to intervene in convention center hotel court battle!!

Metro has hired an attorney to intervene on its behalf in the court battle over a proposed subsidy for a convention center hotel. The regional government has led the effort to build a $198 million Hyatt Regency hotel in an effort to lure more conventions to its convention center. The hotel would be privately built and owned, but with the help of $60 million in revenue bonds paid off with a tax on hotel rooms and $18 million in direct subsidies. Opponents of the project — primarily competing hoteliers — have sought to refer the use of hotel taxes to voters. Their effort was blocked by the Multnomah County Elections Division, which said opponents didn’t have legal standing to petition, and the opponents sued to reverse that decision.
www.oregonlive.com/front-porch/index.ssf/2014/01/m...river