SAN ANTONIO -- Tourists to the Alamo City will continue to pay a visitor tax on hotels and rental cars if local voters decide to fund $415 million in civic improvement projects for the area.

As cities across Texas have elections on local issues Saturday, voters in Bexar County will decide whether to extend a 1.75 percent tax on hotel rooms and 5 percent tax on short-term car rentals to fund four separate propositions: improvements to the San Antonio River, new youth and amateur athletic facilities, renovations of arts centers and upgrades to rodeo grounds and arenas, including the AT&T Center.

"We can't spend this money on streets, but we're allowed to spend it on some major quality-of-life issues," said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, a main advocate for the propositions.

In the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch, the councilman who pushed for one of the country's most sweeping anti-illegal immigration measures and a businessman who opposes the costs of trying to enforce the ordinance are vying to become mayor.

The Bexar County venue tax was originally approved in 1999 to help pay for the AT&T Center, where the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs play.

Wolff said that after it became clear the AT&T Center, which opened in 2002, would be paid off sooner than expected, he started looking at what else could be improved.

Officials were distracted briefly by the possibility of bringing another major league franchise to San Antonio, something that didn't pan out, before settling on the four proposals that are going before voters Saturday.

Wolff emphasized that Saturday's vote would simply extend the venue tax, not increase it.

Bill Brendel, president of the San Antonio Hotel and Lodging Association, said that while there was opposition to the original tax in 1999, the association is supporting the extension.

"We were a little bit more comfortable that the tax would not have an adverse affect on travel and tourism," Brendel said.

The river expansion and improvements would get $125 million, $80 million would go for 13 sports complexes and performing and cultural arts center upgrades would get $110 million. Another $100 million would go to the arenas.

There is no organized opposition to the propositions, but Jim Lunz, who was on the board that helped negotiate the original agreements involving the AT&T Center, said he had concerns about a lack of detail for all the projects.

"The whole package, $415 million ... no one is really defining what this money is going to go for in any of this," said Lunz, who added that nonetheless he would probably vote for all the propositions except the one involving the AT&T Center.

In Farmers Branch, residents will choose Saturday between Tim O'Hare, a first-term city councilman and personal injury lawyer, and Gene Bledsoe, a real estate agent who has served on several city boards and committees.

On the city council, O'Hare steered Farmers Branch into a November 2006 ordinance barring apartment rentals to illegal immigrants. The rule was revised months later to include exemptions for minors, seniors and some families with mixed immigration status.

Bledsoe was treasurer of a group that opposed the ordinance.

Residents endorsed the rental ban 2-to-1 in May 2007 during the nation's first public vote on a local government measure meant to combat illegal immigration.

A federal judge later blocked Farmers Branch from enforcing its ordinance. The case remains in court.

The council approved a new law this year to require prospective tenants to get a city license to rent houses and apartments. Their citizenship and immigration status would be run through a government database during the process.

The latest measure would take effect 15 days after a ruling on the ordinance currently being contested in court.

Nationwide, more than 50 local governments have approved rules on housing, employment and language aimed at illegal immigrants, according to the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, which tracks the information.

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