Council considers placing hotel/motel tax on ballot
RED OAK — Residents could very well be voting again on a proposed hotel/motel tax at a special election as early as May 1.
The up to 7 percent on all rooms will generate an estimated $70-80,000 a year, half of which has to be spent on tourism, parks and recreation related expenses.
Mayor Bill Billings, who promoted the tax during last year’s campaign, continued to lobby for it at the Jan. 16 council meeting.
“Based on the number of requests we get and the number of capital improvements projects we have before us within our parks and recreation programs, this has been a discussion of a solution to create a revenue stream,” Billings said. “It’s a tax not generated by the property owners of the city of Red Oak but yet by the people who come and stay in the hotels who benefit the city of Red Oak by helping us finance a number of projects.”
City Administrator Brad Wright also advocated for the tax.
“It seems to be a revenue stream we seriously should be considering taking advantage of and if nothing else, giving the voters the opportunity to say what they think,” Wright said.
If passed by a simple majority, the tax would be implemented July 1 and the city would receive its first payment in late October.
Wright said the tax can only be implemented in July and January, which he believes justifies the expense of what would be a second special election in less than three months (see related story).
“Quite frankly, there is money sitting there,” Wright said. “If we can do a good job of explaining to the public what this can do, the first quarter’s payment we would get would be way more than what we are going to spend on a special election. It just seems to make sense in my mind.”
Council member Jeanice Lester asked if the local hotel operators had been contacted about the tax.
Wright said he had talked to Randy Orme, general manager at the Red Coach Inn, and that neither he nor the hotel owners, Charles and Norma Wilson, had a problem with the tax.
Wright said he was unable to contact anyone at the Super 8.
In 2001, Red Oak voters overwhelmingly defeated a similar proposal by a 976-320 margin.
The Council is expected to decide whether or not to approve placing the tax on the ballot at its Feb. 21 meeting.
Downtown Update
Also at the Jan. 16 meeting, the council received an update regarding the downtown steering committee’s master plan and upcoming public improvements.
Daric O’Neal, an architect with Alley-Poyner Macchietto, has been working extensively with the downtown steering committee to formulate a master plan for improvements.
He told the Council all the subcommittees have submitted their input and that he anticipates having a draft of the master plan completed by the end of the week.
Once it is reviewed by the steering committee and a timeline for objectives is formulated, the final draft will be submitted to the Council for approval in late February.
O’Neal said at that point it is imperative the Council assign the responsibility of implementing the plan to one group.
“There needs to be one entity in charge of this implementation,” O’Neal said. “Otherwise it really will end up being another plan that sits on a shelf that nobody really knows what's in it and nobody really knows who is in charge to make sure it is followed.”
Budget Discussion
The Council also briefly discussed the 2012-13 fiscal year budget.
Wright told the Council the budget did balance, but several cuts had to be made, including elimination of a proposed police officer position, denying funding increases from the library and reducing the YMCA’s funding request from $70,000 to $10,000.
The Council will conduct a special meeting on the budget Tuesday, at 5:30 p.m., with all department heads. The public is invited to attend and the Express will have a more detailed story on the budget in next week’s edition.