The fight to stop a taxpayer-funded convention hotel from moving into downtown rolled into a Jackson County courtroom Tuesday.
A judge heard from attorneys on both sides of this issue and called a recess to review the facts.
The city partnered with a development team to build a $300 million, 800-room convention hotel near 16th and Wyandotte. The city is slated to help finance nearly half of the deal with tax abatements and taxes generated by the hotel.
The watchdog group Citizens For Responsible Government believes voters should decide if they want to pay for a new hotel. The group has gathered enough signatures to put it on the ballot, and now they're petitioning the court to force the city to follow the city charter.
John Sternberg, the attorney for CFRG, believes the judge will have no choice but to allow voters to decide.
"It is very important to keep the city in check," said Sternberg. "If the city is able to thwart initiative petitions just because they want to or by signing contracts after the petition gets filed, the initiative process itself would be worthless."
City leaders argue that this would be unconstitutional because putting it before voters at this stage would violate existing contracts and tax increment financing laws.
Chris Hernandez, a spokesman for the city, sat in on the proceedings.
"We believe this is unconstitutional on its face because it conflicts directly with existing tax laws, and it also is asking the city to overturn contracts that have already been executed, that are already signed, that are already enforced," said Hernandez.
The judge is expected to make her ruling in the coming weeks.
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Lisa Benson can be reached at lisa.benson@kshb.com.
