News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville city officials are considering asking state lawmakers for an exemption to include a new hotel-motel tax.
City Manager Mike Davidson said the resolution proposed to City Council would ask the Tennessee General Assembly to allow the exemption.
“In a county that has already adopted a hotel-motel tax, cities by state law are precluded from having a hotel-motel tax,” Davidson said. “But in recent years, the state has exempted cities from that particular part of the TCA (Tennessee Codes Annotated). What I’m asking you to do is consider a resolution that would exempt the city of Cookeville from those particular requirements of the TCA.”
Davidson said if approved Thursday, a proposal would be written for State Representative Ryan Williams and Senator Paul Bailey asking for the exemption. The proposal would be added on top of Putnam County’s current lodging tax.
“If the General Assembly would pass that legislation, then it would come back to the Council,” Davidson said. “The Council would have to adopt an ordinance to establish the hotel-motel tax. We’re asking the state to allow the city to adopt a hotel-motel tax up to three percent. They typically have capped that at 10 percent total, so the county already has a seven percent hotel-motel tax.”
Davidson said current state regulations require revenue generated from hotel-motel taxes be used for certain projects and improvements around the municipality.
“The state has restricted those in the last few years… when they’ve exempted other cities it has to be used for economic development or tourism,” Davidson said. “Those are decisions that, if you adopt an ordinance, you can determine at that point in time exactly how you would distribute that.”
Davidson said the city has several projects in mind already that the potential hotel-motel tax revenue could help pay for.
“The master plan for the Sportsplex [includes] adding baseball and softball fields down there,” Davidson said. “We could use money for that because we just don’t have the money to fund something that. We could look at the next segment of the rail trail or the aquatics facility. There’s different ways we can attract people to Cookeville and Putnam County.”
The tax would not only apply to hotels and motels within the city, but all properties designated as short-term rentals. The tax would include current and future properties being used as AirBnB locations.
Cookeville City Council will consider the resolution during Thursday’s meeting starting at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall.
