Fayetteville hotels
The Value Place extended stay hotel on Rowan Street.
Posted: Thursday, September 24, 2015 8:00 pm
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Updated: 9:18 am, Fri Sep 25, 2015.
An effort by the Cumberland County Commissioners to take control of $5.6 million in local hotel occupancy tax revenue was blocked Thursday afternoon by the state House.
The House voted 103-1 against the bill. The Senate previously approved it.But the measure isn’t dead, said state Rep. John Szoka, a Cumberland County Republican. The bill is being sent to a conference committee of the state House and Senate so that a compromise version can be drafted.
The local hotel tax is 6 percent of the price of a room in Cumberland County. It generates about $5.6 million a year and is used to underwrite the Fayetteville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Crown Coliseum Complex, the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County and projects to promote travel and tourism.
As set by law, most of its money is administered by the Cumberland County Tourism Development Authority. The Arts Council share is set by law at 25 percent of the revenue – about $1.4 million – and is not under the control of the Tourism Authority.
The county commissioners have had complaints with how the Fayetteville Visitors Bureau, which gets $2.5 million, has been promoting the community. They want to dissolve the Tourism Authority and take control of the money.
They also would vastly change how the money is spent – they would divert 47 percent of the money to capital projects intended to promote tourism, for example.
The House rejected the commissioners’ request because the proposed changes run afoul of guidelines the state House has set for the administration and use of hotel tax revenue, Szoka said.
The guidelines say the money should be controlled by a Tourism Development Authority with at least half of its members from the local hotel industry. The commissioners’ change would violate that guideline.
The guidelines say at least two-thirds of the hotel tax should be dedicated to advertising and promotion, and no more than one-third can go to other travel and tourism expenses. Cumberland County already violates that guideline and would continue to do so with the law change.
In addition to modifying the administration and spending of Cumberland County’s hotel tax, the bill makes changes to occupancy taxes in Harnett, Moore and Wayne counties and in Sanford.
Sanford’s request, which would direct money to its local civic center, would also violate the guidelines, Szoka said. The Harnett, Moore and Wayne County requests fit the guidelines.
Szoka is hopeful that a compromise bill can be drafted for Cumberland County that is closer to the guidelines but also addresses the community’s needs.
Staff writer Paul Woolverton can be reached at woolvertonp@fayobserver.com, in Raleigh at 919-828-7641 or in Fayetteville at 910-486-3512.
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Thursday, September 24, 2015 8:00 pm.
Updated: 9:18 am.
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