The remaining debt from a bond issued for the construction and development of the Delta Sportsplex will soon fall solely on the shoulders of Washington County, for a time at least.
A senate bill authored by Senator Derrick Simmons that would’ve allowed the continuation of a 2% tax generated from lodging establishments in Washington County to meet the indebtedness of the Sportsplex died April 5 in the Mississippi House Committee for Local and Private Legislation.
On April 14, the Mississippi Department of Revenue issued a notice on the repeal of the tax as of July 1.
The Delta Sportsplex Foundation is a non-profit organization that was put together in an effort to bring a quality level of sports activities, tournaments and economic development to the county and the community.
Board of Supervisors president Carl McGee brought attention to the notice during Monday’s regular meeting of the BOS.
“There was information that was clearly asked for by the members of the House of Representatives from the Sportsplex Foundation. They did not provide that information and with that, they (members of the House) refused to allow the repealer to go forward and it in turn died in the House committee for Local and Private Legislation,” McGee said, highlighting there is roughly $2.7 million in indebtedness that remains on the bond.
Rep. Willie Bailey and Rep. John Hines were the sponsors of the April 2011 Mississippi HB1453 authorizing the imposition of a hotel/motel tax for purposes of funding a sports complex for youth.
According to Bailey, the amount of capital that had been injected into the Sportsplex was requested from Sportsplex officials and the amount of money that had been paid on the bond issue was requested from the county in order to gain consideration for extending the tax.
“We also requested a report on the makeup of the Sportsplex board because we felt that certain segments of the city’s population were not represented on the board and yet it was tax money going into this particular project,” said Bailey. “That request was made back in February.”
Summarily, information to show justification for continuation of the 2% tax and the way it had been spent was never provided, according to Bailey.
“We wanted clarity on that before we decided to continue it,” he added. “When you’re spending public money you’ve got to have accountability…my position at the time I made the request was that if I don’t get this information, then I’m not going to be able to support a repeal to extend that tax.”
Councilman Al Brock, a member of the Sportsplex Foundation, said it partners with the county as a lessee of the county-owned facility.
“All we do is rent, maintain and manage the facility as an independent non-profit organization,” he explained. “Obviously we’re all very confused and disappointed that it wasn’t reinstated. We don’t understand what the situation is, but we will say that we struggled to bring the level of tournament play to the sportsplex.”
Although there was a fervent hope to bring substantial activity to the sportsplex, Brock pointed out the substantial competition Washington County faced with neighboring communities and others throughout the state developing vast complexes as well.
“Every major community in this state did the same thing and developed large sports complexes and playing fields at much higher levels and expense than we did and we basically found ourselves competing with other communities to get tournament play in the area,” he said further. “We have a lot of activity out there and a lot of it of course is our local leagues of soccer and baseball and we’re working continuously to get more play to the sportsplex, but it’s been a real challenge with the kind of shoe-string volunteer basis that we’re operating on.”
He added, “The funding that we have basically comes from money that we make on the tournaments and businesses and sponsorships that we’re able to secure.”
With the next legislative session being slated for January 2023, McGee requested permission from the BOS to put together a new piece of private and local legislation to reinstate the 2% lodging tax and more.
“And,” he said to BOS members, “maybe an additional 1% to help take care of county parks, which would include Hollandale, Leland and areas like that where we can give assistance.”
McGee continued, “If we develop this legislation for private and local and they give us a total of 3%, that allows 2% (paid by visitors) to be for the Sportsplex and 1% to assist the parks throughout Washington County.”
Approval of such legislation would go through the Department of Revenue and, according to McGee, prompt the BOS to determine whether the county has to have its own parks and recreation department.
The BOS voted unanimously to grant McGee the requested permissions.
