Selectman Donovan Hill, in a recent discussion of improvements to McComb’s neighborhood parks, said the city board should consider a beverage tax to bolster declining motel tax revenues.
Hill mentioned the beverage tax at the Aug. 11 city board meeting. He envisions applying it to any liquor, beer, tea or soft drinks sold at restaurants in McComb.
Officials have not discussed what percentage such a tax might be, but Hill said it could bring in as much as $500,000 a year. Like the money from the motel tax, the beverage tax revenue could be directed to things like parks, recreation and museums.
The beverage tax could replace money from the general fund that’s used for park maintenance, Hill said, and that cash could be redirected to something like street improvements.
There has been no formal discussion of such a tax, which would require approval from the Legislative and probably McComb voters in a referendum.
Hill’s comments came during a board discussion about the likelihood that motel tax revenues will not produce the full $600,000 the city wants for its second phase of neighborhood park work.
Hill, in an interview this week, said a story and headline in Tuesday’s newspaper was incorrect in stating that he wants the city to spend up to $600,000 on the Martin Luther King Center.
“There is too much work to be done in the city of McComb to spend all that in one place,” he said.
In the past few years, the 3 percent tax on motel room bookings in McComb has paid for plenty of recreation upgrades. It helped add a third softball field at the McComb Sports Park, and now it is being used to repay $600,000 that the city borrowed this year to renovate some of its neighborhood parks.
Part of that money is being used to build the city’s 11th neighborhood park, at the South Pike Community Center in Algiers. The park will include a splash pad, and an existing baseball field and basketball court that are not used now will be fixed up and reopened.
Hill said the community center board deeded the property to the city so it could do the work, “and I would like to tell them thank you.”
He said the motel tax will produce enough money for the city to repay the $600,000 loan the city obtained this spring. But with Tuscaloosa Marine Shale cutbacks expected to cause further declines in motel room reservations, selectmen question whether the tax can pay for a second $600,000 they want to borrow for more recreation improvements.
“It’s still going to happen,” Hill said. “But it just won’t be the same amount because we’re getting less revenue. The whole purpose was for us as a board to be proactive in getting our parks done instead of waiting till the last minute and saying, we don’t have enough money, now what do we do?”
Hill said the city will have to see how much money the motel tax produces in the future before it decides whether it can afford to borrow another $600,000. If not, Hill predicted the board will settle on a smaller amount.
