Business leaders talk tax increase
Published Tuesday, January 29, 2008
NATCHEZ — Local business leaders gathered Monday to discuss why they need a proposed tax increase and how to convince residents it is necessary.
If ultimately approved by the state legislature, the tax would place a $1 fee on every occupied hotel room, and would increase the 8.5 percent food and beverage tax already in place to 9 percent.
The expected funds from the proposed increase — approximately $400,000 — would be earmarked exclusively for tourism marketing projects.
“We need more marketing money to be able to tell people about what is going on in Natchez,” Natchez Chamber of Commerce Tourism Committee Chair Rene Adams said.
A special advisory board composed of two members from the hotel industry, two from the restaurant industry, one from Natchez Pilgrimage Tours, one from the casino industry and an at-large member would administer the funds collected.
The advisory board will have broad authority to make recommendations for how the money should be spent, but it will be the Natchez Convention and Visitor’s Bureau that will make the decisions, former Natchez City Attorney Walter Brown said.
The half-percent increase would ultimately translate to about $0.05 more to a $10 meal, Adams said.
The problem is that much of the population does not want to face any new taxes of any amount, Alderman Bob Pollard said.
“They don’t care about tourism taxes on hotel rooms, but they don’t want anything on them,” Pollard said.
Media Liaison for the Natchez Convention Center Sally Durkin said it is a matter of who the public perceives the tax increase.
“If you polled them as they entered Burger King and asked them if you can tax a nickel on their $10 meal for tourism marketing, they would say ‘no,’” Durkin said. “But if you asked them if you could tax a nickel on their meal for job creation, possibly for people in their families, they would probably say ‘yes.’”
The general consensus she has gathered from the bed and breakfast owners and restaurants was one of support, Adams said.
But it is important for not only management but also lower level employees to understand what increased advertising can do for the city, she said.
“(Managers) need to let that busboy or that waitress know that this could mean the difference between 30 hours a week and possibly overtime work,” Adams said.
The board of aldermen has to approve the increase before it is sent to the state legislature for its ultimate approval, and the matter will be brought before them Feb. 12, Brown said.
“The Feb. 12 (aldermen) meeting is kind of a magic date for us,” Brown said.