News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
McMinnville has approved an ordinance increasing its hotel/motel tax to 5-percent.
Jimmy Haley is Mayor of McMinnville.
“State of Tennessee only allows hotel-motel taxes to go toward tourism development,” Haley said. “For us, it was a way to fund those operations plus be able to take an opportunity to let some of the visitors that are here help pay for some of our initiatives, instead of passing that cost to our tax payers.”
Haley said the tax should generate an estimated $30,000 to $40,000 a year.
“We are looking at future revenue as well because we’ve got one hotel getting ready to build here and two more hotels looking at us,” Haley said.
The money generated from the tax will go directly to the Tourism Development Board, which will be administered by the McMinnville-Warren County Chamber of Commerce.
“Instead of the city having to absorb that within a department, the chamber already has that kind of mechanism in place because they have been our tourism development facilitators for the last four to five year,” Haley said. “It was a win-win for everyone.”
Haley said McMinnville has earmarked $75,000 for administration of the board.
