Hotel tax hike still an option
By Steve Herring
Published in News on May 8, 2015 1:46 PM
Goldsboro and Wayne County officials, local legislators and state travel and tourism representatives are expected to meet by the first of the week in Raleigh to revisit a proposal to increase the city's hotel occupancy tax by one cent.
The one-cent increase remains an option, but the group will also look at leaving the rate as is and divvying its revenues up differently, state Rep. John Bell of Goldsboro said.
The proposal survived last week's procedural deadline, which required all non-budget bills to have cleared one legislative chamber in order to remain in play for the rest of the session.
Bell said he has learned much more about occupancy taxes since he filed the bill on April 1, and that the city and county might be better off to work within the existing 5 cent rate.
Under the proposal to increase the tax, the city would provide a third of the additional revenues to Wayne County for its proposed $14 million agriculture/convention center. Bell said that might not be necessary.
"We may not need legislation to do what we need to do," he said.
The state travel and tourism lobby has a strong influence in the General Assembly, he noted. It has implemented guidelines for local travel and tourism agencies to follow.
The guidelines are not mandated by the state, Bell said. They came about because some governmental agencies enacted the tax to help balance their general fund instead of using its proceeds to promote travel and tourism.
Currently, Goldsboro Travel and Tourism is not in compliance with the guidelines, he said. There is nothing wrong with how the city's travel and tourism is operating, it just hasn't adopted the guidelines, Bell said.
In some ways that is an advantage because it provides more flexibility, he said.
But the House Finance Committee has a subcommittee on the tax that will look closely at whether a local government is in compliance with the guidelines, Bell said.
Wayne County and Goldsboro are in a "unique situation" because everyone is in agreement as to what needs to be done -- the city, county, private sector, the agriculture community and others.
With all of that in mind, it might be more practical and simpler to work within the existing five-cent tax than to seek the increase, he said.
Should that not work, the legislative option is still viable, Bell said.
The bill filed by Bell on April 1 to increase the tax from five to six cents passed its first reading and was referred to the House Committee on Finance on April 2. Bell is a member of the committee.
It also would create a Goldsboro Tourism Development Authority, which would spend the revenue, promote travel, tourism and conventions, sponsor tourist-related events and activities and finance tourist-related capital projects in the county.
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 idea had been to get the bill on the books prior to the filing deadline and then tweak its language.
Reps. Jimmy Dixon of Mount Olive and Larry Bell of Clinton also are primary sponsors of the bill.
Meanwhile, it could be late June or early July before the drawings are completed for the agriculture/convention center.
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 the additional 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 its operations.
Also as part of the deal, the county will loan the city $3 million at 1.5 percent interest over 15 years so that the city can pay for a multi-sports complex.
The complex would be built on 60 acres the city would lease from the Air Force under the P4 Initiative.
Another $200,000 would be provided by the county for the purchase-renovation of the Goldsboro Country Club that already has been purchased by the city.