Could Changes Come to a Decade-old Ordinance?

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — “Tourism monies are special, hospitality monies are special in the sense that it is collected, justified for a very specific purpose and that is to promote tourism,” says Joe McCulloch, Attorney If you travel to Richland County, stay in a hotel, have dinner or a night out on the town, you pay what’s called a Hospitality Tax. The tax is collected at every purchase from the hospitality industry. “The folks with the tourism industry, local and statewide, their job is to ensure that those hospitality tax monies are used appropriately,” says McCulloch Since 2003 the money, according to a county ordinance has gone into one account called the “Richland County Local Hospitality Tax Revenue Fund.” From there, officials decide how the money will be spent to better tourism in our area, including the City of Columbia. McCulloch is representing two local tourism entities that are fighting a recent motion before the Richland County Council to change the account that holds tourism dollars. The motion suggests putting the money into six different accounts. “Maybe 50-60 million dollars by 5 council districts, which in my thinking, could leave us with the instability to do anything really sufficient,” says Jim Manning, Richland County Councilman We took the motion to Manning, Monday. “There’s no concern of oversight, it’s strictly a matter of if you pool resources you can do something bigger and better,” says Manning But, oversight is exactly what those against the motion are concerned about. “Dividing the money up on the front end and putting in these six to seven pots around the county leads to kind of diffusion of oversight,” says McCulloch. Councilman Manning says the Hospitality Tax issue is part of the budget and was up for a second reading. But, it was recently taken out of the budget and will instead be taken up at a work session, Wednesday afternoon.