Occupancy tax gets state OK
By Steve Herring
Published in News on September 30, 2015 1:46 PM
A countywide 1 percent occupancy tax was approved just before 8 p.m. Tuesday as the General Assembly worked toward adjournment early today.
The tax is a linchpin of an agreement between Goldsboro and Wayne County for development of the city's multi-sports complex and the county's agricultural and convention center.
But while the law is effective immediately, the tax cannot be put into place until Wayne County commissioners act on two separate resolutions.
And even before that action takes place, it is possible that the county first needs to amend its agreement with the city, County Manager George Wood said this morning.
"I was just reading a copy (of the law) this morning," Wood said. "I am going to put it on the (Tuesday) agenda for discussion."
Wood said the reason he is asking for discussion and not action is wording in the bill that says commissioners must adopt a resolution implementing the tax and another creating the Wayne County Tourism Development Authority.
The authority would be charged with how the money is spent to promote travel and tourism in the county.
What is unclear is whether both resolutions have to be done at the same time, he said.
Wood said he needed to talk with County Attorney Borden Parker as to what the procedure should be.
There have been discussions that the county board makeup mirror that of the city travel and tourism board, Wood said.
At least a third of the authority members must be affiliated with businesses that collect tax in the county, and at least 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.
"Also, before we do that, there needs to be an amendment to the agreement with Goldsboro to reflect the changes in the tax," Wood said. "What comes first?"
Wood said he also needed to talk with Parker about that and then meet with City Manager Scott Stevens and City Attorney Jim Womble.
Wood said he did not think amending the agreement would be difficult.
The original agreement was based on a 1 percent increase in the city's hotel tax, not the implementation of a countywide tax.
As part of the agreement, the county will loan Goldsboro $3 million at 1.5 percent interest over 15 years for its planned multi-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 original idea was 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.
It was changed to a 1 percent countywide tax to meet state travel and tourism guidelines.
The agreement will need to amended to reflect that change and to split out who is doing what, Wood said.
The 11th-hour passage came after House and Senate conferees worked together Monday and Tuesday to reach a compromise on differences between the two chambers.
The conference committee became necessary after the Senate rolled Wayne County's request into a hotel tax bill that also included Sanford, Moore County and most of Harnett County and that makes changes to the Cumberland County hotel and prepared food tax.
But some in the House balked at provisions for some of the other taxes.
Wood said it appears from reading his copy of the bill that the conferees separated Wayne County's request back into its own bill.