If you head to the Blackstone Area, you could soon be paying slightly more to eat and drink in the district. Developers say they need help funding the Blackstone Hotel renovation and a public hearing will be held next week on adding a two-percent occupation tax in Blackstone.
Developers say the project, which proposed 204 rooms, a ballroom and rooftop bar, will not happen without the occupation tax.
But not everyone agrees with the proposed plan. The City of Omaha already passed a 2.5 percent restaurant tax in 2010 and when you add that with the seven percent sales tax and the proposed occupation tax, a diner in the area would pay a 12 percent tax.
"I just think they raised the tax a few years ago and it'd kind of too soon to do it again," one person in the area said.
