The San Diego city council has decided that funds from a tax on hotel rooms and not those from that city's share of money from the settlement of a national tobacco lawsuit are to be used to pay for the construction of a new $130-million main library.
In a special session on February 9, the city council voted 5–3 to not follow Mayor Susan Golding's proposal to use a portion of the $312 million the city will receive as a result of the lawsuit.
Golding's press secretary, Ric Grenell, told American Libraries that in the event hotel taxes fall short of expectations, the city will use the tobacco lawsuit money as backup funding.
Posted February 15, 1999.