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Wrightsville Beach OKs hotel tax hike
By Sam Scott, Staff Writer WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH - Calling it a user fee for tourists, the Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen voted Thursday night to increase the tax on hotel rooms by three cents on the dollar. The new tax - which should raise about $780,000 a year for the town - will be split between paying for tourist-related services, such as lifeguards, and funding promotions of the area, Mayor Avery Roberts said. Revenue from the tax will defray the cost of providing for the tourists, an amount that one alderman put at $1 million annually. Parking revenue also helps pay expenses related to tourism. "The tourist is now paying his fair share," Alderman Barry Mowbray said. Saying the tax was a long time in the making, Mr. Mowbray said it was important to remember why the town wanted the tax in the first place. It was not a money grab, but a way to have the people who use services pay for them, he said. As such, the tax should be accompanied by a decrease in the town's property tax in the near future, he said. The tax on a hotel room in Wrightsville Beach will be 12.5 percent starting Feb. 1. Reflecting the town's mixed feelings towards tourists, the aldermen said they were much more eager to have the half of the tax that will pay for tourist services than the half that will promote a place many residents wish would attract fewer visitors. But the town had to take what was available, the mayor said. They did not want to leave the $380,000 available for paying for tourism services sitting on the table, he said. In October, the General Assembly passed a bill allowing New Hanover County's three beach towns to raise the occupancy tax but dictated how the funds must be split. A similar bill gave Wilmington the same right, though the city's revenues would go toward a convention center. Carolina Beach adopted the tax last month. Kure Beach postponed considering the tax after the town's motel owners presented a petition saying it would hurt their businesses. Three Wrightsville Beach hotel operators spoke at the meeting, saying they accepted the tax as inevitable but were wary of its effect on their business. A board made up of 15 people from the beach
towns and Wilmington will direct what projects received the money. Money
collected from a particular town can only be spent in that town, the
aldermen said. |
