Commissioners end speculation on restaurant tax, approve measure 5-0

The Corbin City Commission ended months of speculation Monday about the timing and details of a proposed citywide restaurant tax after a first reading of an ordinance to enact the levy passed without dissent.
Officials say a second reading of the ordinance will likely be scheduled during a special meeting next Monday.
“I think we’ve done it right,” Corbin Mayor Amos Miller said about the move. “This is not something we just came out and done. This is something we’ve been talking about it since last June.”
The proposed three percent tax on gross receipts from all permanent and temporary food providers in the city will go into effect immediately if approved by the city’s Board of Commissioners. Quarterly collections of the tax will begin April 1.
Miller said a delay between expected passage of the ordinance and enforcement was built in to allow restaurants to adjust to the change.
Corbin leaders laid the groundwork for the tax last year by approving a resolution that allowed the state’s General Assembly to drop the city’s designation from third to fourth-class. Classifications are based on population. A third-class city is forbidden, under current state law, from passing a restaurant tax. A fourth-class city may do so, but 100 percent of the proceeds must go to the city’s Tourism and Convention Commission.
Tourism Commission Chairman Don Estep presented a letter to commissioners making a case for passage of the tax.
“The City of Corbin faces a bright future with the coming of the Southeastern Kentucky Agricultural and Exposition Center,” Estep said. “It potentially will bring millions of dollars into the city. In order to assure its successful operation it will need funds available only through a restaurant tax.”
Commissioners have cited projected operational deficits at the proposed convention center as the main impetus behind a restaurant tax. The center, currently in the planning stages, will be constructed near the Corbin Technology Center on Cumberland Falls Hwy.
Estep argued that most of the tax will be paid by non-residents of the city and said surplus funds not used to operate the convention center will be used to improve recreational facilities in the town. Last month the Tourism Commission voted to conduct a study of Corbin’s recreation infrastructure in order to formulate a plan for improvement. He offered some initial ideas to commissioners including turning the town’s present civic center, located off Hwy. 312, into a recreation center.
“It will be possible to have soccer, little league football and baseball fields there. Also, there can be basketball, volleyball and tennis courts. There can even be a walking track for our senior citizens. Many possibilities exist there.”
Corbin Recreation Director Marlon Sams said recreation improvements made possible by a tax are welcome and exciting.
“It’s very good news for recreation,” Sams said. “We’ll work together to come up with those ideas. It’s been kind of a long-range plan for the civic center. We are going to sit down with the Tourism Commission and talk about it.”
Sams also floated the idea of an enclosure for the city pool allowing it to be used year round.
Miller said he couldn’t speculate how much revenue would be generated annually by the tax.
“There’s no good guestimates on something like this,” he said. “The payroll tax was supposed to bring in x amount of money, but it was nowhere close to what was said it was going to do. After the first three months, you’ll have a good estimate of what it’s going to be. We have a ballpark figure, but it would be purely speculation for me to say what it is.”
Last year, Miller said a study done in 2000 estimated that a three percent tax in Corbin would generate about $600,000 to $800,000 annually.
No one at the well-attended meeting Monday spoke out against passage of the tax. Miller said he wanted to wait a week before a second vote on the issue and encouraged anyone with opinions on it to attend the next meeting and speak.
In other business, the commission:
• Approved an ordinance changing the zone designation in the Ralph Reasor Subdivision from R-2 to R-1.
• Set a business license fee for a consultant at $300.
• Declared vehicles seized by the police department in drug-related arrests as surplus property to be sold at a public auction.
• Reappointed Kyle Jones to the Code Enforcement Board for a term of three years.
• Accepted the resignation of Dennis Lynch from the Corbin Tourism and Convention Commission. He had been a member of the Commission for 19 years.
• Appointed Susie Razmus and Wes Tipton to the Corbin Tourism and Convention Commission.
• Discussed concerns by Commissioner Joe Shelton regarding maintenance problems at Corbin Senior Citizens Center.
Shelton told commissioners that portions of the center’s painted walls were bubbling and that some floor tiles needed to be replaced. He added that federal funding had been cut to the center, forcing the cessation of Wednesday meals.
“It’s kind of one of those places we don’t talk that much about,” Shelton said.
Commissioners agreed to appropriate whatever money was needed to make the repairs.
The city gives $12,000 to the Senior Citizens Center.
• Approved payment of $5,000 to the Cumberland Valley Area Development District for administration of grant money relating to the Corbin Technology Center.