A bill to extend Greenwood’s tourism tax for another three years continues to work its way through the Mississippi Legislature.
Disagreements over Senate Bill 3016, however, continue over whether to continue any of the set-asides previous authorizing legislation has mandated.
The 1 percent tax on Greenwood hotels and most restaurants funds the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau. The tax is set to expire later this year if it is not renewed by the Legislature.
Currently, the CVB is mandated to annually dedicate $2,000 of the tax’s proceeds to American Legion Post 200 and $5,000 to R&M Productions, although the latter organization has not always sought its full allotment.
In the Senate’s Local and Private Legislation Committee, the set-asides were eliminated.
On Sunday, however, the House reinserted and increased the allocation to $5,000 for American Legion Post 200 but made no mention of R&M Productions. The amendment was authored by Reps. Willie Perkins, D-Greenwood, and Kevin Horan, D-Grenada. Perkins had insisted on the set-asides during the 2011 reauthorization of the tax.
The re-amended bill was approved by a vote of 108-4, with three other members voting “present” and seven either absent or not voting.
All three Greenwood-area House members, including Rep. Karl Oliver, R-Winona, voted for the measure. Last year, an effort to increase the tourism tax from 1 percent to 3 percent died when Oliver and Perkins battled over the set-asides.
The bill now moves back to the Senate for consideration.
The Senate can either approve the House changes or refer the bill to conference, where three members of each chamber would try to work out the differences.
Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, a City Council member and a sponsor of the bill, said he will try to persuade his colleagues to approve the bill as rewritten.
“My feeling is let’s get this bill passed because we need it passed,” Jordan said. “We need the funding for our tourism commission to do its work.”
• Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
