JACKSON, Miss.—Visit Jackson President and CEO David Thigpen and his staff are dedicated to promoting tourism in Jackson, and their work has been successful thus far—but the funding his team depended on ran out on Aug. 31.
Now, Jackson City Council members are pleading with voters to approve a Nov. 3 referendum that would raise the city’s tourism tax from 1% to 2% for hotels and motels and 1% to 1.5% for restaurants in order to support the work of Thigpen’s team. Should voters approve the increase, it will generate around $2 million in additional funding per year, the Clarion Ledger reported.
“I’ve got some flak about this, even from one of the supervisors, and my question to them was… ‘When you eat in Pearl and … Clinton, you’re already paying the same tax, so why can’t we do it too?’” Ward 4 Councilman Brian Grizzell said at the Oct. 20 city council meeting.
The average tourism tax on hotels and motels in surrounding cities hovers at about 2.6%, and at about 1.8% for restaurants—excluding Madison, which has no tourism tax. The tourism tax on hotels and motels in Pearl, Flowood and Brandon is 3%…