VIDEO: Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau Agrees To Fund City $350,000

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- For the past few months Lowndes County and Columbus city leaders have been trying to draft a proposal to send to state lawmakers to renew the two percent restaurant tax.

On Monday, the Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau met to discuss the possibility of entering into an inter-local agreement with the city of Columbus.

“We worked for many hours to come up with the funding for the request that have been made,” said Nancy Carpenter, CEO of Visit Columbus.

After the meeting, Carpenter said she feels they moved one step closer to renewing the restaurant tax.

“The board agreed tonight to fund the renovation of the four baseball parks and Propst Park, and that is $300,000,” said Carpenter.

The board also agreed to fund the city $50,000 to go towards the amphitheater.

“No private inter-local agreement between the city and the county was considered today because the board had not had an opportunity to see the written private local bills, so this action was strictly a commitment to fund in order to get this matter resolved,” said Dewitt Hicks, CVB chairman.

Hicks said the decision was only a commitment because the board never saw the inter-local agreement proposal in writing until minutes prior to the meeting getting underway.

When he took a look at the proposal, Hicks said the city added an additional item to its terms and conditions.

“That term was that the festivals, four festivals would be increased from $10,000 to $12,500,” Hicks explained. “That was not presented before about five minutes before our meeting, so the inter-local agreement, until all terms are known was not considered.”

Now that the board has agreed to go through with the funding for park renovations and the amphitheater, Hicks said they have to wait for the city and county to come up with a unanimous resolution to send state law makers before moving forward.

Last week that the county approved a resolution to be sent to Jackson, however it passed on a 3-2 vote and was not unanimous.

It was also significantly different than the city’s resolution.

“After the city sees or knows that we have agreed to fund both the baseball parks at Propst Park and amphitheater, then the inter-local agreement deals more with other items that they would like to see included, and I guess they will come back to us, and I expect that to happen rather quickly,” Carpenter expressed.

The two percent restaurant tax expires July first.