Tourism tax bill still on table
By Steve Herring
Published in News on September 29, 2015 1:46 PM
State House and Senate conferees worked together Monday to iron out differences in a House bill that would establish a countywide 1 percent occupancy tax crucial to the development of Goldsboro's multi-sports complex and the county's agriculture and convention center.
Those discussions will continue today as the General Assembly moves toward adjournment sometime shortly after midnight, Sen. Louis Pate of Mount Olive said this morning.
Some of the differences were resolved after conferees had spent a "good portion" of Monday trying to hammer out a compromise, said Pate, chairman of the Senate conference committee.
Pate said he expects conferees will be able to come to an agreement sometime today that would be added to the House and Senate agendas. A conferee report requires just one vote in both chambers instead of the three required for the bill, he said.
Pate said he is optimistic that the recommendation will be approved.
The bill passed its third reading in the Senate 42-5 last week and was sent back to the House for concurrence. However, the Senate-approved version differed from the original House bill. The Senate rolled Wayne County's request into a hotel tax bill that also includes Sanford, Moore County and most of Harnett County and that makes changes to the Cumberland County hotel and prepared food tax.
But some House members balked at the Cumberland County provision, and a conference committee chaired by Rep. John Bell of Goldsboro was appointed.
Bell was the primary sponsor of the original bill that started out as a 1 percent increase in Goldsboro's hotel occupancy tax. It was switched to a countywide tax to comply with state travel and tourism guidelines.
The bill cleared the House on July 21 and was sent to the Senate, where it passed its first reading on July 22 and was referred to the Senate State and Local Government Committee.
It was moved directly to the Finance Committee at the request of Pate.
It was in committee for nearly two months before being rolled into the bill with several other hotel tax proposals.
The bill does not implement the tax. That is the responsibility of Wayne County commissioners, who must adopt a resolution to levy the tax.
They also have to create the Wayne County Tourism Development Authority that would be charged with how the money is spent to promote travel and tourism in the county.
At least one-third of the authority members must be affiliated with businesses that collect tax in the county, and at least one-half of the membership must be currently active in the promotion of travel and tourism.
Commissioners will designate one member as chairman and determine the compensation, if any, to be paid to members.
Until the bill becomes law, the county is unable to act on major decisions concerning its proposed approximately $18 million regional agricultural and convention center that has been the driving factor behind the tax.
Also, the Goldsboro City Council and county cannot revise their agreement that led to the tax bill in the first place until it becomes law.
The original agreement was based on a 1 percent increase in the city's hotel tax, not the implementation of a county-wide tax.
Under the agreement, the county would loan Goldsboro $3 million at 1.5 percent interest over 15 years for the city's planned sports complex.
Also, 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.
The idea is to increase the city tax from 5 to 6 percent and to give the county 33 percent of the tax revenues for the first 20 years for the center and 25 percent thereafter.