During the Crossville City Council's second work session on the 2018-19 fiscal year budget, a discussion of the use of the proposed Hotel/Motel tax led to a discussion of future plans for economic development, business and industry recruitment.
Crossville city council work session
According to City finance director Fred Houston, he expects the new revenue to be handled as a separate enterprise fund in the city budget and he has looked at the estimated $200,000 revenue and earmarked $10,000 for the Sports and Events Committee plus $45,000 for the city's expense of the visitor's center in partnership with the county.
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Later in the discussion, it was pointed out that in the first year because the collection of the tax is delayed quarterly the first year's revenue would be closer to $150,000.
City Manager Wood explained that an additional $28,000 could be used for work on the proposed retail development on 127-N. He added the remaining funds could be used to help fund the chamber or the Playhouse other tourism and economic development activities.
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Council discussing the possibility of partnering with Roane Alliance or the Highland Initiative on economic development and looking at budgeting for such a buy-in.
City Manager Greg Wood has been investigating the possibilities and said both groups are interested in talking to the city about such a partnership. Wood added that Roane County was willing to discuss such a partnership but seemed less eager than Highland.
Councilman Danny Wyatt said the groups are regional and those kinds of partnerships are being pushed at meetings like the Governor's Conference.
Mayor James Mayberry added that he felt like Cumberland County was like a stepchild stuck out at the end of the Upper Cumberland Development District (UCDD) and UCHRA. “Our region is Cumberland County, Fentress County, and Bledsoe County,” added Mayberry. He said that the UCDD was trying to generate interest in a sub-region to include Cumberland, Fentress and Bledsoe Counties as a cooperative economic development group.
Councilman J. H. Graham commented, “That may be the best idea I've heard in a long time.”
Wyatt commented, “You've got to fit in somewhere. The definition of a fool is to keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. It has not been working.”
Mayberry asked the chamber's Brad Allamong how many site visits had come to Crossville and the response was 9 since July of 2017. Allamong added that the city made a huge investment in the Interchange Business Park of a quarter million and the county is in for a quarter million for the grant of half a million. He added that just this week ground was broken and work had begun on the 200,000 square foot pad.
“Now we're going to have something to market,” added Allamong. He also cited the Targeted Industry Study pointing out he had a list of hundreds of businesses that match with the area's current resources. Allamong continued that the next step is targeting industry currently in the high tax states. He said it was a similar idea as retirees that move from higher tax states to lower tax areas like Crossville.
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