For the last several months, Mayor Toby Barker and members of the Mississippi Legislature have brought forward the possibility of a 1-cent tax increase on hotels, motels and restaurants, that would be split equally between Hattiesburg’s parks and recreational facilities and the renovation of USM’s Reed Green Coliseum.
But before that matter is brought to a public vote, Barker and his administration are asking for the public’s input via a 5-question survey regarding what improvements should be made – and where – throughout the city’s parks.
“Before we put a plan on the ballot, whether it’s this fall or next spring, we want our residents to be part of shaping the plan,” Barker said.
The survey, which was posted last Thursday, will be available for the next couple of weeks at www.hattiesburgms.com/parksurvey. It asks the following questions:
• What city park do you visit most?
• What features do you enjoy most at this park?
• What improvements would you like to see at this park?
• If you could add a type of park, athletic field or recreational facility somewhere in the city, what would it be?
• Is there anything else you want to tell us about your opinion of parks, trails or recreational opportunities in Hattiesburg?
“We’ve already received 375 responses (as of Monday) on the form, of things that people want to see in their city,” Barker said. “This goes beyond whether we pass a tax increase to help Reed Green Coliseum or to help do some projects – this is a collective decision on what kind of city we’re going to be.”
The tax increase proposal, which is formally known as Senate Bill 3069, was introduced earlier this year by Sen. Billy Hudson, a Hattiesburg Republican. The proposal would add an additional one cent per dollar to purchases made at restaurants that gross more than $100,000 per year, hotels and motels.
Barker said the current Legislature gives two options on where the funds from the proposed increase could be spent – parks and recreation or tourism.
“I think if you look at where we are as a budget, we’ve been kind of plateaued around the $50 million mark,” he said. “We know that we have significant financial challenges – infrastructure, closing our structural deficit, getting through some audits.
“All of those sort of put some limits on what we can do in terms of these quality-of-life-type projects that residents have asked us for. In the 26 town hall meetings that we have had across the city, expanding and investing in neighborhood parks is one of the top priorities that residents have identified. So this provides the mechanism with which to pay for some of those desired improvements, as well as just do some basic maintenance at the parks that we have.”
Barker announced the city would seek the extra 1-cent tax one day after USM President Rodney Bennett asked Hattiesburg City Council members for help in renovating Reed Green Coliseum.
An exact date for a vote has not yet been set, but because the matter is municipal, it’s unlikely that it will show up on November’s statewide general election ballot. In order for the tax increase to pass, 60 percent of voters who come to the polls must vote in favor of the proposal.
“I am for it – I think it would be good for the entire city,” Council President Carter Carroll said. “I think we have some recreation needs that would normally be coming out of the general fund, but if we get the 1 percent, then that could be taken care of by that tax.
“Then that way the monies that would have come from the general fund for the recreation could then go into paving and things of that nature.”
Carroll said the proposal is not strictly for the benefit of USM’s basketball teams, who play at Reed Green Coliseum, as it would help generate revenue with other events as well.
“I think the coliseum has not really been renovated since it was built in the ‘60s, and we need to modernize it so that we can have concerts and other activities,” he said. “Right now, the way the coliseum is set up for sound, for video, and the bathrooms and the concession stands – concerts and activities that would normally come there don’t come, because it’s not set up to do it in a proper fashion.
“And as people come for these concerts and other activities, they’re going to be staying at our motels, they’re going to be eating at our restaurants, they’re going to be purchasing things. The city would really improve in sales tax dollars. So it’s really a win-win for everybody.”
