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The Brandenburg City Council met Wednesday (12\/4) evening to hear the first reading of two ordinances that would support a new restaurant tax and develop a city tourist and convention bureau.<\/p>\n
About 60 people were in attendance at the meeting, which was moved to the city maintenance building to accommodate the crowd. After the readings, Mayor David Pace explained the ordinances were a result of previous public comments and a committee related to a proposed one percent occupational tax within the city. Mayor Pace said that the committee has met once and is expected to possibly meet again before the next regular meeting to be held on Monday (12\/9) night.<\/p>\n
City leaders explained that a tax of two percent would be placed on fixed or mobile businesses that engages in the preparation and serving of ready-to-eat food or beverage. In order for the tax to be administered, the money would have to be collected by city’s tourist and convention bureau by state law. The city tourist and convention bureau would reimburse the city five percent of the collected money for administration that would be used in-part for various projects or needs in the city’s general fund.<\/p>\n
Mayor Pace explained the need for the additional revenue is to help maintain a operational cushion for city operations. He said the city is currently working a budget of $390,000, with monthly expenses of $117,444. He also stated the city has over $1 million of assets which includes the property, vehicles, and infrastructure that is included in the budget and is generally misunderstood as “money in the bank”.<\/p>\n
City Clerk Amy Haynes said that the current budget does not include the proposed tax revenue because it was based upon what funds the city had available at the time. She said if the proposed tax was approved, the current budget would have to be amended to reflect the additional revenue into the city’s general fund and give city leaders better perspective generated funding.<\/p>\n
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The several people who asked questions and commented were clearly against the proposal with stating that the tax would but further overhead on local restaurant and business owners, who are already struggling with inflation and cost increases to keep their businesses open.<\/p>\n
The council could not discuss any details related to the proposed one percent occupation tax due to that topic was not on the special meeting agenda. Both proposed taxes are expected to be discussed during the next regular meeting on Monday (12\/9) at 7 pm.<\/p>\n
You may watch the entire special meeting in our “On Demand<\/a>” section. You can also read the full documents for Ordinances 644 & 645 related to the Restaurant Tax below.<\/p>\n