§4710.24. Expansion project; additional taxes

            A. As used in this Chapter, "expansion project" means a project or projects for the acquisition, construction, installation, and equipping of additions or improvements to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center-New Orleans, the "convention center", including but not by way of limitation each of the following:

            (1) Phase III Convention Center Expansion Project, which consists of a building attached to the convention center containing additional exhibit space, meeting rooms, ballroom space, a food court, exhibit hall concession stands, food production facilities, and other structures and facilities functionally related to the convention center and completed in April of 1999.

            (2) Phase IV Convention Center Expansion Project, which means the project to construct a free-standing building across Henderson Street from the existing convention center, on a site owned by the authority, containing approximately one million five hundred thousand square feet under roof including approximately five hundred thousand square feet of exhibit space, with accompanying meeting rooms, food service areas, building service areas, and other facilities functionally related thereto, and which shall be connected to Phase III Convention Center Expansion Project by a pedestrian bridge above Henderson Street.

            (3) Phase V Convention Center Expansion Project, which means all of the following projects:

            (a) Constructing, installing, equipping, renovating, and refurbishing the convention center and related infrastructure and the acquisition of land in the vicinity of the convention center to implement the authority's five-year capital plan as the same may be amended from time to time but excluding any expansion project beyond the projects referred to in Subparagraphs (b) and (c) of this Paragraph.

            (b) The public or private development of the Convention Center Headquarters Hotel Project, the private component of which may involve a joint project between the authority and a private entity.

            (c) Additional riverfront development adjacent to or in support of the convention center including acquisition, expansion, investment, construction, restoration, demolition, site preparation, and development of land, structures, infrastructure, including public rights-of-way, utilities, lighting, and landscaping to surrounding urban areas and riverfront. Such development shall be accomplished in a manner that ensures no interference with or adverse effect upon vehicular access to the facilities of the board of commissioners of the Port of New Orleans or the main line track of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad.

            B.(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Chapter or any other law to the contrary, in order to provide funds for any expansion project and for the use of such funds, along with existing taxes, fees, and charges to secure any bonds issued for such expansion project, the authority may levy and collect within the parish of Orleans a tax of one percent on the occupancy of hotel rooms located in Orleans Parish.

            (2) The tax shall be paid by the person who exercises or is entitled to occupancy of the hotel room, and shall be paid at the time the rent or fee for occupancy is paid.

            (3) The tax shall not apply to the rent for a hotel room rented to the same occupant for a period of thirty or more consecutive calendar days, nor shall it apply to hotel rooms rented for less than three dollars a day.

            C.(1) In addition to other taxes authorized by this Chapter and to provide additional funds for any expansion project, the authority may levy and collect an additional tax on food and beverages sold by any food service establishment located within the parish of Orleans or in any airport or air transportation facility owned and operated by the city of New Orleans, excluding any food service establishment owned by any individual or corporation who had gross annual receipts of less than five hundred thousand dollars from the operation of all such establishments during the calendar year prior to the year in which the additional food and beverage tax is assessed. The tax shall be in the amount of one-fourth of one percent of gross receipts from the sales of goods and beverages by food service establishments.

            (2) The tax shall be paid by the person who purchases such food or beverage and shall be paid at the time that the charge for the food or beverage is paid.

            (3) The phrase "food service establishment" has the meaning set forth in R.S. 33:4710.23 and shall not mean or include convenience stores or grocery stores.

            (4) The tax shall not apply to meals furnished to any of the following: the staff and students of educational institutions, including kindergartens and pre-kindergartens; the staff and patients of hospitals; the staff, inmates, and patients of mental institutions; and the boarders of rooming houses. The tax also shall not apply to occasional meals furnished in connection with or by educational, religious, or medical organizations if the meals are consumed on the premises where purchased. However, sales by any of the above institutions or organizations in facilities open to outsiders or to the general public are not exempt from the additional food and beverage tax authorized by this Subsection.

            D. The authority shall impose the taxes authorized by this Section by resolutions adopted by the board, which may provide in the resolutions necessary and appropriate rules and regulations for the imposition, collection, and enforcement of such taxes, including rules relative to issuance of tax exemption certificates for the food and beverage tax. The authority may contract with the state of Louisiana or the city of New Orleans, or both, for the collection of the taxes authorized by this Section.

            E. The authority to levy and collect the additional hotel occupancy and food and beverage taxes shall terminate upon payment in full of all bonds or other similar debt obligations of the authority payable in whole or in part from or secured by such tax and issued before July 1, 2029.

            F. Without reference to any other provision of the constitution or laws of Louisiana, including this Chapter, the authority may, from time to time, with the approval of the State Bond Commission, issue negotiable bonds in one or more series for the purpose of providing funds to finance expansion projects in accordance with the provisions of R.S. 33:4710.17 and 4710.17.1; such bonds to be payable from all revenues derived by the authority as more particularly set forth in the resolution or resolutions providing for their issuance.

            Acts 2019, No. 172, §1.