Bill to change hotel use tax is filed
By Steve Herring
Published in News on April 3, 2015 1:46 PM
RALEIGH -- A bill authorizing up to a 1 percent increase in Goldsboro's hotel occupancy tax passed its first reading in the state House of Representatives on Thursday and was referred to the House Finance Committee.
If approved, the local bill would increase the tax from 5 to 6 percent, with a portion of the increased revenues going to the county for its proposed agriculture/convention center.
It also would create a Goldsboro Tourism Development Authority that would spend the revenue, promote travel, tourism and conventions, sponsor tourist-related events and activities and finance tourist-related capital projects in the county.
However, before any of that happens, the bill's wording and funding formula will need to be tweaked to ensure it conforms to an agreement between the city and Wayne County, said Rep. John Bell, who filed the bill.
The bill's title mentions promoting agriculture, but the body of the legislation does not make specific mention of the proposed agriculture/convention center.
The agreement is that a third of the additional revenues would be used for the first 20 years by the county for operations and maintenance of a planned $14 million agriculture/convention center.
Bell said he is unsure how long it will take to finalize the bill that was filed to "get it into the door and get a slot for it and move forward."
Reps. Jimmy Dixon of Mount Olive and Larry Bell of Clinton also are primary sponsors of the bill.
The filing followed a "really, really good" Monday afternoon meeting in Raleigh between local legislators and city and county officials, John Bell said.
Attending the meeting were John Bell, Dixon, state Sen. Louis Pate, Goldsboro City Manager Scott Stevens, Goldsboro City Council members Gene Aycock and Chuck Allen, Wayne County Manager George Wood and commissioners Wayne Aycock, Joe Daughtery and Joe Gurley.
Rep. Larry Bell and Sen. Don Davis were unable to attend, but were advised about the meeting and discussion, John Bell said.
While it would be a tax increase, it is viewed as a way to bolster economic development and as such is not seen in the same negative light as other tax increases, Bell said.
In an earlier interview, Dixon said he rarely supported anything that could be considered a tax increase. However, he said he believes the collaborative effort behind the project justifies the increase.
"I feel comfortable in supporting this because I think the people will do what they have said they are going to do, and there will be value generated from this extra," he said. "Sometimes people just want to increase something just to have more money to throw at a problem. This money is not being thrown at a problem, this money is part of the solution to a problem, and that is the reason I am supportive of it."
Dixon said he and Bell enjoy a good working relationship with each other as well as with their legislative colleagues and that they do not foresee any problems with the bill's passage.
"When we support something, generally we have very broad-based support," he said. "We have built up some degree of trust and respectability with our colleagues, and I think when they see us support it, they won't fight us on it. I think it will pass."
"I feel good about it," Bell added.
What is unusual about the bill is the broad-base bipartisan support in the community, he said. It is supported by Seymour Johnson Air Force Base as well as the agriculture community, he said.
Travel and tourism officials are working with the process as well, Bell said.
Although this past Wednesday was the deadline for local bills, Pate has a "place holder" bill in the Senate that will enable him and Davis to file a similar bill once the details have been ironed out, Bell said.
Or it might be that Pate and Davis will just pick up the House bill when it makes its way to the Senate, Bell said.
Pate and Davis have filed a bill seeking $3 million in state funding for the project.
It was announced in March that the city would give the county 12 acres of land on North Wayne Memorial Drive on which to build the center.
In exchange for the county increasing the size of the assembly area, the city agreed to ask for the occupancy tax increase and to provide 33 percent of those revenues for the first 20 years for the center and 25 percent thereafter.
That money would be used by the county to help fund the center and for operations.