Mid-Missouri groups discuss increases tax to pay for airport renovations

The City of Columbia, Boone County, Columbia Public School, Chamber of Commerce, and the University of Missouri held a joint meeting at city hall Friday morning.

The city’s main agenda item was the restructuring of the Columbia Regional Airport, namely expanding the terminal.

City leaders have secured funding for some of those renovations, including a new runway. But now the focal point of the expansion is a new terminal.

“On Monday we will introduce legislation at the city council level to create a temporary increase in the lodging tax to support our part of that funding,” said Columbia City Manager Mike Matthes.

If the council moves forward with the ballot language, the measure could appear on the August ballot. The current lodging tax sits at 4 percent. It would increase to 5 percent until the terminal is completely funded.

“It’s just a part of the funding. Most of the funding will come from the federal government,” said Matthes. “We can’t get any of those dollars until we have something locally. So we have to go first and this is the mechanism by which we know we can do that.”

In other words, the city must prove its capable of raising the revenue bfore it’ll see a cent.

Columbia’s lodging tax is fairly low compared to other cities across the country, considering how popular the city is with out of town guests.

The city attracts millions of people a year for conventions, sports tournaments, festivals and university graduations.

The most recent data for St. Louis lodging tax pins it at about 22 percent.

But tourism experts said that’s the reason it’s low.

“It keeps us competitive with other cities around here,” said Amy Schneider, the director of Columbia’s Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. “At four or five percent, we;re one of the lower taxes in the state.”

Schneider said it’s a way to keep people staying in Columbia instead of heading to Jefferson City, where the tax is 7 percent.

“There are businesses and the university who pay the tax when they bring people in,” said Schneider.

Keeping it low helps out the local businesses that pay lodging for convention goers. It also keeps those conventions in the city because she said companies and sports teams really do look at lodging tax when picking a place to stay.

State government also comes into play.

“Then also it starts triggering some state legislative things once you start going over a certain amount,” said Chamber of Commerce President Matt McCormick. “There are some numbers that start triggering some other things that need to take place.”

Schneider confirms there needs to be legislative action if they wanted to raise it by a few more percentage points. According to Missouri statute, a city can’t have a lodging tax lower than two percent or higher than six. They’d need to request that legislative action.

But city leaders are confident a lodging tax is the way to go, since a lodging tax is supposed to fund tourism efforts. The city believes the airport plays a key part in the tourism success of the city.

“Just the idea that you have tourism pay for the terminal is an asset, makes a lot of sense to most folks,” said Matthes.

He said they have surveyed residents and the tax proposal has about a 70 percent approval.

“I think that’s why it gets the kind of support it does,” said Matthes.

City leaders see the airport as an economic tool more and more lately, especially as the land around it is set to be developed.

McCormick said there are several companies in the area that could use more freight transportation. For instance, the city’s nuclear reactor produces isotopes for medical use around the world. They have half-lives so they need to be transported quickly and a drive to St. Louis or Kansas City is too long.

While they can be shipped from Columbia, the only option is commercial flights and at the pilate’s discretion.

He hopes to add that option while even increasing the commercial flights.

“So if we could have a larger airport with larger facilities we can start taking a look into freight options that can be run out of the airport also,” he said. “Now you can use with certainty the airport to ship these in and out straight from Columbia.”