STARKVILLE — Local leaders made their cases for a new 1-percent tourism tax to support Starkville’s parks and recreation system — including the construction of a new $20 million-plus recreation facility with tournament-ready fields at Cornerstone Park — at a Thursday night forum.
The forum, hosted by the Starkville Daily News, focused on the tax ahead of an approaching May 30 referendum. The city is looking to add 1 percent to its restaurant and hotel/motel sales taxes, revenue from which would support Cornerstone Park’s construction and improvements at Starkville’s existing parks. Cornerstone Park would be built near the southwest intersection of Highways 12 and 25 in west Starkville.
In order to pass, the tax must garner voter approval of at least 60 percent. If passed, it would raise the city’s total restaurant and hotel/motel sales tax to 3 percent.
Mayor Lynn Spruill said that while the new park is the “sexy” piece of the 1-percent tax issue, it’s about more than that. She said tax revenue will be used to fund soccer improvements at McKee Park, and Cornerstone’s focus on baseball and softball will allow the city remove McKee’s baseball and softball fields and change the focus there.
“If we’re not communicating well that this is going to be for a more well-rounded approach to our parks, it’s only because I think that the referendum is so focused on the new park and what it’s going to do,” Spruill said. “It’s going to be the biggest project that Starkville has ever done. We’ve never done anything over about $7 million or $8 million.”
Parks and Recreation Director Gerry Logan said the city is already working on improvements for its existing parks system and will continue to do so if the 1-percent tax passes. He cited improvements at McKee Park as examples, such as a new pavilion, new chain-link fencing at the baseball fields, new landscaping and parking areas, sidewalks, water fountains and swings.
“We all understand we’ve got some work to do on our parks system,” Logan said. “But, I’m very thankful to have the mayor and board of aldermen’s support. We’ve asked for quite a few things over the last few years and we’ve been able to get them and move ourselves forward.”
About 30 citizens attended the forum, during which leaders answered questions submitted in writing.
‘We’re paying for their parks’
District 43 Rep. Rob Roberson (R-Starkville), who co-authored the legislation for Starkville’s 1-percent tax with District 37 Rep. Cheikh Taylor (D-Starkville), said other cities in Mississippi already have special tourism taxes like the one Starkville is seeking.
He said he’s heard complaints about the additional taxation, but said people are already paying the tax to support recreation elsewhere when they travel to some of Starkville’s peer cities.
“People don’t really understand, they’re paying this in other places,” Roberson said. “They’re paying this in Grenada. They’re paying this penny in Oxford. They’re paying this additional money in other places and … when we go to another community, we’re paying for their parks.
“To me, that’s unbelievable that as smart as this community is and as smart as we should be, we can’t see the big picture here,” he added. “The big picture is you’re already paying this, folks.”
Spruill also noted that Hattiesburg recently passed its own 1-percent tax referendum. According to WDAM in Hattiesburg, 81 percent of Hattiesburg voters approved the addition to that city’s restaurant and hotel taxes in an April 23 election. Hattiesburg will use its additional tax funds on parks and recreation facilities and for renovating the University of Southern Mississippi’s Reed Green Coliseum.
Indirect impact
Greater Starkville Development Partnership Interim CEO Jennifer Prather said the new park would have an indirect impact on other areas of life that can benefit more people than just those who use the facility.
Starkville’s hotels average about 75-percent occupancy per week in the fall, Prather said, with that rising to 100 percent on football weekends. During the summer dead period between the end of college baseball and the beginning of college football, the occupancy rate falls to about 40 percent.
While the city’s parks department is already recruiting more youth sports tournaments, Prather said drawing more people to town throughout the summer will help to drive Starkville’s existing 2-percent tax and its sales tax, which helps fund other things.
“I may have a $300,000 budget all year long to do events in this community that people love — things like Pumpkinpalooza and the farmer’s market — things that create a strong quality of life. That just expands our capacity and our bandwidth to do more,” Prather said. “It expands Gerry’s current budget that he has. That 40 percent (of the current 2-percent tax) that parks get, it expands that, so outside of the tournament facility it gives him the ability to do more for the current parks and the new parks system they want to create.”
Ward 2 Alderman Sandra Sistrunk said people have questioned why the new park focuses so much on tournament events. She said that by doing so, it should necessarily create a higher-quality facility that is also available for all residents to use, in addition to hosting tournaments.
“It is all about tournament baseball, but in being all about tournament baseball, it’s about improving our recreation facilities and allowing our kids to have that quality experience that lots of them don’t have right now,” she said.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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