"They've had six years of public subsidy, of drawing this money out of the businessmen's pockets. Is it worth it?" Bradford said. "Go persuade those people you have developed an organization that is good for them. After six years they should be able to do that. If they can't, why should we continue it?"

Both Bradford, an attorney with an office in the district, and property owner John Beesley suggested making the alliance a voluntary organization. Beesley opposed the assessment district but said he would pay a voluntary assessment.

"The voluntary assessment would work, if it were groomed well," Beesley said. "If you're a businessman and you can spend $10 and it'll bring $20 back to you, you'd be a fool not to do that. If you spend $20 and only see $10 back, you'd be a fool to do it."

Billings said the alliance has helped lure new developments.

"The Downtown Alliance is about cooperation," he said. "It's about providing a voice for people doing business downtown. It's about joint promotion. It's about getting Wells Fargo to even think about building downtown."

The seven-story Wells Fargo Center was completed in 2005. This year, announcements have been made for two more mid-rise office towers.

Under the new proposal, all businesses would be assessed at a lower rate than they have been for the past six years, and Provo would for the first time be assessed for city government property. The city also agreed to lobby county, state and federal governments with property in the proposed district to accept assessment.

The assessments would last for three years, when they would have to be renewed through another public process, and are based on the taxable value of commercial property. They would begin at a minimum of $175 with a cap of $10,000, though documents provided to the City Council showed the majority of property owners would pay less than $1,000 and the largest assessment would be $5,300.

The alliance announced this week it had hired an interim executive director, Char Coleman, director of Coleman Studios in downtown Provo. Executive director Susan Bradford resigned in July for personal reasons.

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E-mail: twalch@desnews.com