Or I have a pipe dream.

Blount Today is reporting that the latest in the epic battle for the Civic Arts center is an idea to have it paid for by hotel/motel taxes:

In a phone conversation on Friday, Keeble explained how the facility could be funded. Keeble and McCall had not yet spoken with other commissioners to get thoughts on their plan, Keeble said.

According to Keeble, 37 percent of the hotel/motel tax collected in Blount County goes into the county general fund. Hotel/motel tax dollars are supposed to be used for tourism, he said.

Instead of property tax dollars, hotel/motel tax funds would pay for the county’s portion of the facility.

“I feel this is a good use of that money. Tourism is people coming into our area, spending money and going home. That would be an excellent opportunity for the arts center,” Keeble said. “The entire portion payoff on the art center would be done with hotel/motel money, so no property tax money is involved.”

So, the hotels in our county (both of them) may draw enough in taxes to cover it. Also, there is this:

According to the original plan, funding for the facility would come from the county, the cities of Alcoa and Maryville, the college and the federal government. More than $20 million in funds raised by the college and $8 million in federal dollars would pay the bill until 2014 when the county and cities would start paying their shares. The facility would be owned by the Industrial Development Board and leased to the college.

Ah, first mention of federal pork for the project that I can recall. Guess that explains Jimmy Duncan’s interest. Boondoggle, ho! Looks like the powers that be really want this thing.

Posted in uncategorized on December 11th, 2005 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |