'Chance to make a statement:' Motel tax hike option for protecting rural areas

By Joel Davis
of The Daily Times Staff

Of all the funding alternatives for a development rights purchase program that the Blount County Growth Management Advisory Committee presented during a public forum Monday, the idea of allocating a portion of a hotel/motel tax increase drew the most vocal support from county commissioners present.

"I'm very interested in the option of (using) a portion of the hotel/motel tax," Chairman Robert Ramsey said. "It's our chance to make a statement."

The advisory committee is suggesting that increasing the hotel/motel tax from 4 percent to 5 percent would generate $400,000 per year and that the county could allocate half of that to fund a program to purchase development rights.

Commissioner David Graham said the commission needs to study the committee's recommendations.

"If we are going to be just more me-too counties, like our neighbors, we don't need to even bother with this," he said. "If we want to set ourselves apart from our neighboring counties and add value to our county, this is something we need to seriously look at. It's really important."

Locally, the Foothills Land Conservancy has been working to protect open space through conservation easements -- a transfer of usage rights that restricts development on a property. A development rights purchase program could help protect other properties, Chairman Johnathan Sitzlar said.

"It's not always going to be a simple transfer of development rights, even with some of the tax credits out there," he said.

About 60 people attended the forum at the Blount County Public Library.

"It doesn't look to me that there's any downside to this," community member Ingrid Haun said.

The committee's mandate from the Blount County Commission is to discuss creating a program to purchase development rights for property to preserve open space, a step recommended by the Hunter Interests Growth Study published in 2005.

"If you leave it to the market, we'll be Pigeon Forge," committee member Doug Gamble said. "If people in Blount County mean it when they say they want Blount County to remain rural, beautiful and accessible, it costs money to do it. It's kind of a 'put your money where your mouth is' situation."

The other funding alternatives recommended by the Growth Management Advisory Committee include:

— Establish a real estate transfer tax of $100 per $100,000 of value. This could generate an estimated $560,000 per year.

— Increase the transfer/recording fee at the Register of Deeds office from $1 to $5, which could generate $175,000 per year.

— Set aside 1 cent on the property tax rate, which would generate about $225,000 per year.

— Use the Greenbelt rollback tax, penalties levied on property converted from agricultural uses, which could generate about $116,000 per year.

— Use 0.5 percent of the sales tax.

— Establish a donation box on the property tax payment form.

— Issue a state specialty license plate.

— Use 15 percent of the revenues from a wheel tax.

— Use a "windfall tax" that would divert county sales tax revenues beyond estimates set during the budget process.

Commission Vice Chairman Steve Samples said he believes using funds from the hotel/motel tax would be easier to implement than trying to use any portion of the sales tax.