Tax hike for Lexington hotel guests OK’d

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – Hotel guests in Kentucky’s second-largest city will likely pay higher taxes to help support a $250 million expansion of the Lexington Convention Center under a bill that has passed the Kentucky legislature.

The House and Senate approved a bill Friday that will allow the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government to increase the transient room tax to 8.5 percent from 6 percent. The money will pay for a $250 million expansion of the Lexington Convention Center.

Republicans, who control the state Senate, had killed the deal. But they revived it as part of a compromise on the state’s two-year operating budget legislative leaders agreed to earlier this week.

The convention center complex includes Rupp Arena, the famed host of the University of Kentucky’s men’s basketball team, but the renovations will not affect it.

Gov. Matt Bevin has indicated he will sign the bill.