Supervisors push higher hotel tax for sportsplex

Jan. 17—Visitors to the Queen City may see the cost of hotels go up a few dollars as the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors looks to increase the county's tourism tax.

In a meeting Tuesday, the board approved a resolution asking the state Legislature for permission to raise the county's current tax on hotel and motel stays from 2.5% to 5% and earmark the funds to go toward building a sportsplex. Supervisors plan to present the resolution to Lauderdale County's delegation later this week.

Supervisor Kyle Rutledge said Tuesday's action was not the first time the county had explored increasing the tax on hotels, but the political landscape was not as welcoming to the idea then as it is now. The previous attempt was abandoned as it was unlikely a bill authorizing the increase would make it out of committee.

State lawmakers introduce thousands of bills each year, and each bill is referred to a committee to be studied and voted on. Only bills that are passed by the committee are then taken up by the full House or Senate. The majority of bills introduced never make it past the committee stage.

With a newly elected Speaker of the House and new committee leadership, Rutledge said the board had been told the fate of its bill looked more promising than before.

"We tried this a couple years ago, and they said they didn't think they could get it through the committee," he said. "But they came back with some new leaderships, and since they've had change over there in Jackson, they said we could possibly try. If it doesn't work, we still have our 2.5% that's funding tourism."

Board Attorney Lee Thaggard said the current 2.5% tax is applied to room rentals of hotels and motels within the county. The money from the tax is not earmarked for a specific purpose and is rolled into the county's general fund.

"It does not include food, telephone, laundry, beverages or similar charges," he said.

While Lauderdale County is on board, Thaggard said lawmakers may also want to see similar support from Meridian officials before adding their weight behind the proposed tax increase. Many of the hotels and motels subject to the tax are within the city limits, he said.

Building a sportsplex or large athletic facility that could be used to host regional tournaments and travel ball leagues has been a frequent wishlist item for county supervisors as well as Meridian and Marion officials. Meridian, which also hosts the annual State Games of Mississippi, is well positioned to be a host site if the facilities are built.

"We're one of the larger cities in the state that doesn't have something like this," Rutledge said. "It's just finding the mechanism to fund it."

Supervisor Craig Houston said a sportsplex is needed in Lauderdale County and could generate a significant amount of revenue for the community.

"We definitely need a sportsplex," he said.

The board is planning to be in Jackson Thursday and plans to hand deliver the resolution to its delegates then.

Detention Center Radios

In other business, officers in the Lauderdale County Detention Center will be getting some new radio equipment after supervisors approved a trade in agreement with ComSouth to buyback and upgrade the county's old system.

In a work session Thursday, Sheriff Ward Calhoun explained that the detention center's old radio system uses a 20-year-old repeater installed in the Raymond P. Davis Annex, which is next door. The county, however, is working to vacate the annex and turn it over for development or other private use. To do that, he said, the repeater needed to be moved.

Calhoun said ComSouth has offered to buy back the detention center's current radios and repeater and provide a new repeater with updated radios for officers to use. The buy back amount and cost of the upgraded equipment are the same, so it will be no cost to the county, he said.

Collinsville VFD

Supervisors on Thursday also gave Lauderdale County Road Department the green light to proceed with improvements to the entrance to Collinsville Volunteer Fire Department. Poor drainage and a transition from asphalt to gravel have created a situation where fire fighters are damaging their vehicles when coming to and from calls, Road Manager Rush Mayatt said.

Mayatt on Thursday explained he has been working to solve drainage issues at the fire department for about a year. Initially, he said, the plan was to install a drainage system to reduce erosion, but the idea was scrapped after locating utilities on the property.

"Every utility known to man is located in that little area where we're trying to work," he said.

As a solution, Mayatt said the road department will extend the pavement off of Nancy Drive into the fire department lot. The total cost of the project is estimated at about $16,000.

Contact Thomas Howard at thoward@themeridianstar.com