During a forum Monday with members of the business community to discuss ways local governmental bodies are trying to avert budget shortfalls, Monroe County government officials pointed to the proposed food and beverage tax as their primary means of funding
an expansion of the county convention center.
an expansion of the county convention center.
The county already owns property surrounding the downtown convention center — on both sides of College Avenue — and enabling legislation for Monroe County to impose a food and beverage tax as a means of funding the project came from the Indiana Legislature and state Rep. Peggy Welch in 2009. However, it was not imposed at that time, in part because of the recession.
A 1 percent food and beverage tax could generate approximately $2.5 million for the county per year, county council President Geoff McKim said.
McKim, who spoke at a forum sponsored by the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce and others, said the county council will review the food and beverage tax concept at today’s work session at the Monroe County Courthouse. Since some of its members are fresh off of an election cycle, McKim said, the council is far from making up its mind on a possible change that could be controversial.
One question, passed along from the audience to the forum’s panelists, who also included county Commissioner Iris Kiesling, asked why the county didn’t look at increasing the hotel tax instead of going the food and beverage route. McKim responded by saying that an increase in the hotel tax — from 5 to 6 percent, for instance — would only add about $400,000 in new annual revenue to the current income of about $2 million per year.
Moreover, it will still take years for the county to collect enough through the higher revenues a food and beverage tax would generate to expand the convention center, McKim said. A timetable for the expansion is directly linked to a vote on the tax, which McKim said he hopes will take place sometime in 2013.
“A lot of the council is new, and it’s their first time dealing with the issue,” McKim said of the proposed convention center expansion and related tax levies. “So this will be a good chance for them to start talking about it.”
Kiesling said if the county council approves moving forward on the food and beverage tax, an advisory committee would be set up to decide how to divide the income from the tax.
