Statesboro City Council is expected to approve a tax increase Wednesday that is designed to further promote tourism in the city.
As part of its regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday morning at City Hall, council will vote on a motion to increase the city’s hotel-motel tax from 5 percent to 6 percent. The meeting will begin at 9 a.m.
Changing the tax, which capitalizes on tourism by capturing revenue from visitors to the city’s hotels and motels, is estimated to generate an additional $200,000-plus during the next two years alone. It currently collects about $500,000 annually.
Revenue from the tax is used for projects that help promote the city as a tourist destination.
In Statesboro’s case, hotel-motel monies fund, in part, the Statesboro Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Statesboro Arts Council and the Downtown Statesboro Development Authority.
Councilmen expressed support for the tax increase in a Jan. 22 meeting but delayed the vote until a date when all councilmen could be present.
“It’s solid on my end,” Councilman Will Britt said.
Councilman John Riggs said during that meeting: “I’m ready to (approve the increase) tonight.”
But council chose to wait until all members could vote (Councilman Travis Chance was not able to attend the Jan. 22 meeting) to procure unanimous, five-member approval. According to City Manager Frank Parker, members of the Bulloch County legislative delegation, who must gain state-level approval for the increase, prefer to see the council in complete agreement before moving forward.
“We do not need a non-vote,” Councilman Phil Boyum said. “In talking to the legislative delegation … the state wants unanimous support to go through that process without a bump.”
If the council were to approve an increase Wednesday, and later garner state approval, city officials would then determine how the new money is allocated, Parker said.
One idea discussed by council would promise the additional 1 percent to Georgia Southern University, for two to five years, to help construct what university officials say would be a “world-class” shooting and archery center.
University personnel have twice spoken council meetings to elicit financial support for the project that they say would provide a tremendous boon to the local economy.
“The Shooting Sports Education Facility is a comprehensive archery, indoor and outdoor, facility as well as an indoor firing range facility. The project is slated to cost about $5.7 million,” said Vince Miller, associate vice president for Georgia Southern University. “This is an expansion in recreation for not only university use, but for public use. It is a true comprehensive facility for the teaching of shooting sports and shooting education at all levels. It is a one-time investment for the city, but there is a long-time impact to the community.”
So far, about $4 million has been committed for the project by other contributors.
Miller said local organizations able to take advantage of the facility could include Bulloch County Schools, Statesboro-Bulloch Parks and Recreation, the Boys and Girls Club of Bulloch County and local law enforcement.
He thinks the center would be a major draw for competitions — including Olympic qualifying tournaments — providing a boost in tourism at various times throughout the year.
“One tournament alone in a city just outside of Gainesville, Fla., impacted the area for about $2.3 million over one weekend,” Miller said. “We know that one tournament each year, alone, would be a significant investment, but we will do more than that for the city.”
Early plans for the center include several “70-meter archery lanes, 60 firing lanes and an entire outdoor landscape,” he said.
Also, it would likely lead to the creation of a women’s archery team at Georgia Southern.
“It is a $500,000 deal for me,” Britt said. “All of the numbers show us that it would bring in dollars in tourism, and that it does act in the spirit of what the hotel-motel tax wants to do. Everything I read about it, and the presentations I’ve seen on the center, have been positive.”
Britt also said that council’s opting to discuss the hotel-motel tax now is not “directly related” to the university proposal.
In council’s most recent meeting, Barry Turner, the chairman of the Board of Directors for the Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the bureau is in favor of 1 percent being provided to Georgia Southern for two years (for a total of about $250,000).
“We have had a meeting with hotel managers and owners and the majority of that group is in support of the tax,” Turner said. “That is a very important group, which certainly impacts our decision as a CVB board.”
Current revenue from the hotel-motel tax is divided as follows: 5 percent pays administrators of the city’s tourism-related organizations, and 95 percent provides operating funds for the Statesboro Convention and Visitors Bureau, Downtown Statesboro Development Authority and Statesboro Arts Council. Of the share given to those agencies, 40 percent goes to the bureau, 35 percent to the arts council, and 25 percent to the development authority.

Jeff Harrison may be reached at (912) 489-9454.