Columbia political action committee begins encouraging voters to pass hotel tax

As the summer heats up, so does the debate over the proposed August ballot measure to increase Columbia’s hotel tax.

Columbia city leaders said the money from the tax would provide funding for construction of a new terminal building at the Columbia Regional Airport.

The Columbia Hospitality Association, made up of a majority of hoteliers in the city, continues to question the city’s specific plans for the money before and after its built.

Thursday morning, CHA released a statement decrying an alleged ordinance change from back in 2012.

According to the CHA, Columbia voters last approved a hotel tax ordinance in 1999 that would send that money to designated tourism-oriented projects.

CHA alleges an ordinance change in 2012, following the failure by the city to pass a 3 percent lodging tax increase, added the words “economic development” to the ordinance “which is contrary to the intent of the 1999 ordinance, directly undermining a law that was passed by a vote of the people, completely changing its objective,” CHA said in a press release Thursday morning.

The organization said it feels like the new ordinance would place control of all lodging funds, not just the increase, into the city-controlled economic development division.

CHA also said it set up a meeting with Columbia city manager Mike Matthes to get more information on the plans for the terminal.

But according to the press release, the meeting set for May 26 was rescheduled hours before it took place to “sometime in July.”

ABC17 News reached out to Matthes and heard back from community relations director Steve Sapp, who said they would “try to work on something.”

This comes as a political action committee for the city called The Foundation for Columbia’s Future began efforts to encourage voters to increase the four percent hotel tax to five percent.

“All the things that have happened in over 50 years in Columbia that have been improved, everything from downtown to our health care facilities, and our airport is still the same,” said co-chair Greg Steinhoff. “The reputation of our community as a progressive, growing place you want to be and our airport, which is the front door to the whole community, needs to resemble that.”

Steinhoff said he wouldn’t comment directly on the CHA’s criticisms of the city but he said he supports using the tax to fund the airport, saying the opposition could just be trying to stir up fear and doubt in the wake of the vote.

He said the tax is the best way to go and believes the city will use it wisely.

He previously worked with the city on its project to build the ARC facility in Columbia.

“In terms of my personal involvement with this project, I’m focused on making sure what we say we’re going to do with the plan, that we follow through with it, and it becomes reality, and we do what we say we’re going to do with the tax payers money,” he said.

The Columbia City Council voted unanimously May 16 to place the proposal on the Aug. 2 ballot.

The city is also seeking FAA funds to pay for the airport as well and Mike Matthes has told ABC17 News in the past that first the city must prove it can raise the money before the FAA will pay 50 percent of the estimated $38 million project.

You can check out the number of enplanements the airport as seen in the past 30 years here.