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The group opposing public financing of a $212 million headquarters hotel project near the Oregon Convention Center says it will launch a Multnomah County initiative campaign to levy a tax on projects receiving public subsidies in the future.

The campaign, announced Thursday as part of public testimony to the Metro Council, is in response to Metro’s proposed development agreement with Minneapolis-based Mortenson Development and Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels Corp., which would build and operate the 600-room hotel, respectively.

“We’re against this particular deal because it’s not what they promised from the start,” said Paige Richardson, spokeswoman for the Coalition for Fair Budget Priorities, which is representing a group of hoteliers opposing public support for the hotel project. “It is incredibly more expensive and all the risk is on the public side, while the profit is on the private side. This new development agreement reinforces that.”

Under the agreement, Metro would issue a $60 million revenue bond for construction of the hotel that would be paid back using transient room tax collections from the hotel. In return, Metro would have guaranteed room block agreements with Hyatt and would have higher end amenities that attract more visitors and conventions to the area around the convention center.

The initiative would levy a tax on any subsidy over an unspecified amount that would pay directly into a public fund used for building schools or roads, Richardson said.

“There’s no public benefit in this deal,” she said. “We get a ballroom and a public room block. I think most people would prefer schools and roads to that.”

The campaign would be a final course of action if other legal actions were unsuccessful and the convention center hotel project moved forward, Richardson said.

Its timing remains unclear and is likely subject to the results of different legal cases currently in Multnomah and Clackamas counties and a validation action filed by Metro in Multnomah County Circuit Court that would ultimately give Metro the legal right to proceed on the project.

Richardson thinks it is likely the Metro Council will vote next week to approve the development agreement, and will continue to move forward with the hotel project without a public vote.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything that can stop them, so we need to be prepared,” she said. “They seem to be unwilling to turn back. We want to make sure the public gets some benefit.”