Columbia voters on Monday will decide on a tourism tax that supporters say could have a major impact on the community’s future growth.
The referendum on an additional 3 percent sales tax on restaurants and hotels in the city limits requires a 60 percent majority to pass, and members of a committee have been promoting the benefits of building a sportsplex as well as making other park and tourism-related improvements, including downtown.
Rene Dungan, one of the leaders of the committee, said they’re working on getting the word out so voters can make an educated decision.
“We’re emphasizing that the 3 percent is just on prepared food and lodging. It is not on groceries; it is not on basic necessities,” she said. “It’s a choice tax in that if you don’t choose to go out to eat or stay at a hotel in Columbia … then you wouldn’t pay it.”
Dungan said the project is an economic driver that would provide a trickle-down economic effect through enhancing local sporting events and attracting outside tournaments, as well as having more activities throughout the year such as building upon what is done downtown at Christmas.
Dungan said feedback has been great and that they ran out of yard signs promoting the tax when distributing them Saturday because so many residents wanted to put them up.
The process has moved quickly leading up to Monday’s referendum. The Columbia Board of Aldermen unanimously passed a resolution expressing its support for a tourism tax on March 19. The Legislature approved Senate Bill 3118 on March 28, and Gov. Phil Bryant signed it April 3. Aldermen then set the referendum for May 6 and worked to quickly organize the special election.
In fiscal year 2018 the 3 percent tax on dining and lodging would have generated $754,234 with 94 percent coming from restaurants and 6 percent from hotels, according to the Mississippi Department of Revenue.
Alderman-at-large Edward Hough emphasized that the proceeds would be used for more than a sports complex, including anything connected with tourism or the betterment of existing parks.
“If we continue with this Christmas lighting, it will help upgrade some of our electrical systems downtown for Christmas lighting, which encourages tourism,” he said.
Hough said the sportsplex would be a big part, of course, with plans for softball, baseball, soccer and additional tennis courts. He and other city officials recently visited three existing complexes in places like Magee and Brookhaven to get ideas about what has worked and what they would do differently.
Having plenty of parking is something all of them have stressed, Hough said.
The committee has released conceptual drawings of what could be done, but members said exact plans and a location won’t be made until after they learn if the referendum passes.
The drawings show baseball and soccer fields, along with other things like a walking track, on city-owned land on RA Johnson drive, but Hough said that spot hasn’t been chosen for sure.
“The drawback of RA Johnson is once you have something there you can never grow because it’s limited in space,” he said. “We need to plan to have a facility that in the future if we wanted to add more fields or add more soccer that we would have the ability to grow.”
Dungan, who serves on the Columbia school board, said a section of the land belongs to the Columbia School District, while the rest of the property belongs to the City of Columbia.
Dungan said the school district would love to build a new football stadium in the area and has applied for grants through the NFL to do so. She said they were told an answer would be coming in late April or early May, so the district should know soon.
Dungan said Columbia can’t host a regulation track meet because its current track is not long enough. A new stadium would allow the school to host that as well band competitions, she said. She noted those are also economic drivers, bringing in visitors from out of town.
“It’s sports. It’s the arts. It’s everything. It’s not just a sportsplex,” Dungan said.
Conceptual pictures are up in the Columbian-Marion County Library and will remain so until Sunday. They have to be taken down before Monday because it’s a voting precinct.
Jacob Harrison, another member of the committee supporting the tourism tax, said many people ask how much a sportsplex would cost to build and maintain. However, he said it would not be possible to know exactly until more study is done and when they know factors like if the private sector is going to get involved and if they’ll use artificial turf or all grass.
He said it would have been a misuse of city funds to do a costly study to develop such plans before it knew if the tourism tax, which the project is dependent on, passes.
A look at what Lincoln County did gives a rough idea, though, of what Columbia could be looking at. It spent $2.9 million on its facility that opened in April 2016 and includes five playing fields, air-conditioned restrooms, a press box and concession stand, according to the Daily Leader. It has proven self-sustaining as Lincoln County spent $152,759 on operation of the facility versus $191,624 in fees, concessions and rental income in the 2018 fiscal year, the Brookhaven newspaper reported.
Columbia is not the only nearby city looking to build a sportsplex using restaurant and hotel tax revenues. Waynesboro will vote on a 1 percent tax on May 14, and Starkville, which currently has a 2 percent tourism tax, will vote May 30 to add an additional 1 percent to build a baseball complex. Vicksburg opened a huge baseball and soccer facility in February.
Hattiesburg voters last month approved by about 81 percent increasing its tourism tax from 2 percent to 3 percent, although that money is not going to a sportsplex but rather other park improvements.
Harrison said he spends a lot of time on the travel ball circuit and they draw upwards of 10,000 people per tournament, with 90 percent coming from out of town. He said teams often don’t play back-to-back games, and the mothers find somewhere to cool off and shop.
“That's exactly what me and my wife do, and that's what a lot of people we play with do. They find somewhere to eat or to shop," he said.
Harrison said restaurant owners he has spoken to, including of The Deck and Los Reyes, have voiced support.
“They understand that everybody around us has it. If you go to Hattiesburg or any of the surrounding areas, you're helping them build their parks,” he said.
He invited anyone with doubts about the project to talk to him or city officials to try and understand what it’s all about.
Harrison, who was active in the Christmas lights show through the company he works for, Looks Great Services, said downtown development and the sportsplex play off each other.
“Based on the response from everything that we did downtown, people want more of that,” Harrison said. “This is one more way we can move Columbia forward.”
Hough said the responses he has received have been positive and called the project “something that has been long overdue.”
“If we want Columbia to grow and prosper, we’ve got to do things to keep people here. I’ve seen in other communities where something like that draws people to the community,” he said.
Hough said he’s traveled to watch his grandsons play travel ball in places like Magee, which has hosted up to 60 teams in a weekend. A tournament in Brandon had 16 fields with all of them having games going all day long, he said. Smaller tournaments might bring 12 teams one weekend and 20 the next.
Columbia might not draw what Brandon could, considering Brandon’s location near a larger population center in the Jackson metro area, but Hough said bringing in 20 teams 10 to 12 times a summer would be a tremendous economic boost.
He encouraged everyone to come out and vote.
“I think everybody’s on board with it,” Hough said. “We’ll see next Monday.”
REFERENDUM PRIMER
Polls open: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, May 6
Where: City of Columbia municipal precincts: the Columbia-Marion County Library, Jefferson Middle School, City Hall and the Expo Center
Who can vote: City of Columbia residents only
Ballot type: Paper ballots
Outcome: A 60 percent majority is required.
Ballot language: The proposed levy of a 3% sales tax upon the gross proceeds of sales for restaurants or such other businesses where prepared food or drink is sold to the public within the City of Columbia and upon the gross proceeds of room rentals for hotels or motels within the City of Columbia, said sales tax proceeds to be used for the purpose of providing funds for promoting tourism and parks and recreation for the City of Columbia, MS.
Special Election Regarding the 3% Sales Tax Levy
For the tax
Against the tax
Pictured Above: A sign is seen Monday along RA Johnson Drive where a proposed sportsplex could be built on city-owned land. Columbia voters will decide on a 3 percent tax on restaurants and hotels in a referendum Monday with a 60 percent majority required. Tax proceeds would be used for a sportsplex and other parks and tourism improvements. | Photo by Charlie Smith
