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Published: Monday, Mar. 09, 2009 / Updated: Monday, Mar. 09, 2009 05:12 PM

Lake Wylie leader takes issue with hospitality tax

LAKE WYLIE -- Three summers ago Lake Wylie businesses asked a simple question about a new hospitality tax for unincorporated York County. Would it hurt or help the area generating much of the money?

Now, that question is being asked again of the 2 percent tax designed to promote tourism.

On Jan. 5, York County Council approved a request from the Hospitality Tax Advisory Committee -- the group set up to distribute the tax money following council approval -- for $56,890 to fund four projects. Included were $25,000 for an orientation pavilion and exhibition at Brattonsville, $21,600 for American Bus Association convention tourism to Brattonsville and NarroWay Productions, $6,790 for the Museum of Western York County in Sharon, and $3,500 for bus transportation during a March museum conference in Rock Hill.

None of the projects are specific to unincorporated Lake Wylie, which boasted three of the top 11 tax-generating businesses in the first year of the tax. Last summer the county released the top 15 businesses in money collected, with T-Bones on the Lake (No. 2), the River Hills Country Club (No. 9) and The River Rat (No. 11) making the list. The latest figures, said county finance director Beth Latham, show the tax raising $2.5 million since enacted, with the T-Bones coming in third. Carowinds is No. 1. Susan Bromfield, president of the Lake Wylie Chamber of Commerce, would like to see some of the tax money returned to her area for various projects.

"We're probably going to make some kind of request because we think it's right," Bromfield said.

When the tax was still a proposal, Bromfield hoped it could help secure money to help the Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center, which opened in November 2007. However, the chamber looked to other sources for help, securing $350,000 from the state Legislature.

"It was ignored," Bromfield said of the 2006 hospitality tax request. "It was absolutely ignored."

Councilman Tom Smith, who represents Lake Wylie, says questioning if funding countywide projects is fair to Lake Wylie businesses is a delicate issue. He says the four recent project requests are fair.

"When it deals with the York County Museum and things of that nature, yes," Smith said. "Tourism is not just for one particular area."

That tourism question also was brought up in 2006, Bromfield said. She says, in other parts of the county, tourism is easier to measure than in Lake Wylie. The types of visitors who come to Lake Wylie are not people stopping at an interstate rest stop, but often people relocating, moving a company or bringing families to the area, she said.

"We don't consider a visitor just someone who's driving through," she said.

In fact, Bromfield said, that's why the chamber took it upon itself to establish a Lake Wylie Visitor Center. The chamber has served as an unofficial visitor center for years, she said.

"We need some help with the visitor center," Bromfield said, explaining hospitality tax money could be used to add staff at the center.

Another tax-use possibility, she said, is adding restrooms near the lake for the thousands of people who use the Buster Boyd Access annually. Smith said he plans to meet with staff at T-Bones on the Lake to discuss that possibility. Restrooms at Buster Boyd, though, is a project already planned as part of Duke Energy's hydroelectric relicensing application.

"It's being talked about," Smith said. "It's in the preliminary stages."

Further down the line, Smith hopes tourism money will help create a recreational complex on land set aside for that use through a planned development along S.C. 274. He envisions something like Cherry Park in Rock Hill, perhaps hosting baseball, softball or soccer tournaments. Those events, he said, could feed back local restaurants that collect the tax with more customers.

"We're not at that point yet, but we're working on getting there," Smith said.

Applications for the next round of project funding, for tourism projects from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2010, are due Aug. 31. Requests for tourism-related projects can be made by organizations in York County by calling 803-329-5200.

HOW CAN TAX MONEY BE USED? According to state tax laws, the revenue generated by the hospitality tax must be used exclusively for:

• tourism-related buildings, including civic centers, coliseums and aquariums

• tourism-related cultural, recreational or historic facilities

• beach access and renourishment

• highways, roads, streets, and bridges providing access to tourist destinations

• advertisements and promotions related to tourism development

• water and sewer infrastructure to serve tourism-related demand

Note: In a county in which at least $900,000 in accommodations taxes is collected annually, the revenues of the hospitality tax may be used for the operation and maintenance of tourism-related buildings, including civic centers, coliseums and aquariums as well as police, fire protection, emergency medical services and emergency-preparedness operations directly attendant to those facilities.

As reported last week from the York County Tax Collection Office, the top businesses for the hospitality tax are:

Carowinds

Cracker Barrel, Carowinds Boulevard

T-Bones on the Lake

McDonald's, outside of Tega Cay Knights Castle

Red Bowl, outside of Tega Cay Wendy's-Carowinds Boulevard Captain Steve's, Fort Mill