The election ballots in Leflore County on Tuesday will feature the names of 58 people vying for 36 statewide, legislative, district and county seats.
But there will also be a 37th choice to make.
Voters will be asked whether to enact a countywide 1 percent tourism tax. The tax, which requires 60 percent approval for passage, would be tacked onto bills at motels, hotels and restaurants in the county.
The money generated by the tax, according to its backers, would be used primarily to make repairs and improvements at the Leflore County Civic Center.
Last year, the Civic Center operated at a loss of $193,000. According to Leflore County Board of Supervisors President Robert Moore, the center, built in the early 1970s, has “immediate needs.”
“This next term, the board is going to have to face the issue of that parking lot down there, which needs some serious maintenance,” said Moore.
The repairs will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $400,000, he said. “Now that's a huge chunk of the county's budget. And this referendum is a chance for the property owners to get out on the front end of this thing - to get out ahead of the curve and ease their burden.”
Moore said that as it stands, property owners in the county shoulder the costs of the Civic Center, which last year had a recorded attendance of almost 55,000 people.
“The question is, Is this a tax increase or a tax decrease?” said Moore. “Voting for this thing will shift the load to the folks who come into the county to use the Civic Center. And it will reduce the millage rates on property taxes. It makes good sense; as a property owner, I see it as a tax decrease.”
Opponents, though, have raised objections to the referendum's language, which says the money generated by the tax can also be used in several other ways: promoting tourism, providing recreational facilities and programs and “other related purposes.”
“We take offense at the broad language that is on the ballot,” said John Pittman Hey, the treasurer of a citizens group, Taxpayers for Good Government. Hey said the county should look at different ways of tackling the Civic Center's financial difficulties. “They can sell it, cut costs or manage it better. But levying a special tax is not the solution to the problems. We think the government wastes enough money as it is.”
Former Greenwood Mayor Harry Smith also says the language of the measure worries him.
“I can understand if the Civic Center needs more funding,” said Smith. “But that would be the only justification (for the countywide tourism tax). But the way the bill is worded, they left it so wide open that we don't know what's going to happen with the money. This is not about tourism. It's about who's going to spend the money.”
“I'm afraid this would be a sort of county slush fund,” Smith said. “The money could be spent on things that don't bring people to Leflore County.”
The tax would generate an estimated $350,000 a year. Under the referendum, the Board of Supervisors would have discretion over how the funds are allocated.
“The citizens are electing public officials that are very prudent with the county's money,” said Moore. “And I believe that every supervisor is just that: prudent when it comes to county funds. I don't anticipate our officials being wasteful. Now you may not always agree with the decisions, but at the end of the day it's all about advancement, about enhancing the quality of life in Leflore County.”
Moore said that “probably four-fifths” of the tourism tax would go to the Civic Center.
“I think (the Civic Center) has done a tremendous job for the county over the years,” said Moore. “Think about all the businesses in the area that benefit from it. But it has, like anything else that you use, fallen into a shape that now it needs some help. And the beauty of the election is, the people will decide how we are going to go about funding it. The only thing that makes sense is to set this thing up to where tourists coming in here shoulder the burden.”
The city of Greenwood already has a tourism tax, enacted in the early 1990s. That 1 percent tax, which comes from 58 hotels and restaurants inside the city's borders, earned the Greenwood Convention and Visitors Bureau $369,909 last year, according to Paige Hunt, director of the bureau.
“I certainly want to do anything that would promote both the city and the county,” said Hunt. “We work very hard to promote the county as a whole because if something is good for the county its going to be good for the city of Greenwood.”
Greenwood Mayor Sheriel Perkins said she supports the measure “wholeheartedly.”
“What these funds are going to do is benefit the entire county and Greenwood,” said Perkins. “The city and county both don't have funds just sitting around in a bucket. This would no doubt help us maintain our existing infrastructure. I would hope the city would support this. We are all in this together. When people come to our town to enjoy our fine restaurants, this tax would help ease the tax burden off of our residents. And it would help us promote and improve n especially improve n what we have in Leflore County and in Greenwood.”
Mississippi's general sales tax is 7 percent. If the referendum passes, someone dining in a Greenwood restaurant or staying in a Greenwood hotel would pay 9 percent in taxes. Of the 52 other counties and cities in Mississippi with a tourism tax, 73 percent of them collect 2 percent or more.
“The city would benefit from the (countywide) tourism tax,” said Perkins. “Everyone should know that. But if they would have gone in when we first got (the city's tourism tax) and set it at 2 percent, then we wouldn't be having this. But they didn't do that.”
Smith, however, is worried that the county will use the money to create another tourism agency that will wastefully duplicate the efforts of the Greenwood Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“I don't think there is any justification in having two tourism agencies inside of Leflore County,” he said.
