By Betsy Finklea
Mayor Todd Davis discussed the hospitality fund during his report at the Dillon City Council’s July meeting.
Davis said he was looking over the two-cent hospitality tax fund. He said in summer it spikes, and so far this new fiscal year, it is about at $49,000, which he said was good. This is the first year that there has been a negative on the balance of that fund since it started. He said he cannot recall having less money at the beginning of the fiscal year than at the end of the fiscal year by about $4,283. He said the balance in the fund was $806,757, but at the beginning of the year it was approximately $811,000.
He said upon reviewing it, it was easy to see why.
Approximately $230,000-$240,000 was taken out to subsidize the golf course and the Wellness Center. Davis said if this wasn’t government, and it was a private business, it would shudder at those two things and rightfully so in his opinion. He said they were there for a different reason and they fund that for a different reason, not for profit per se, but quality of life.
He commended City Manager for his projections on the golf course and said they had a handle on it.
Davis said he projected that the Wellness Center would continue to run this size deficet because they lowered the membership rates going into this year.
He said it was something they were going to have to get accustomed taking that amount of money out of the hospitality fund for at least the next two years when they decide where they are going on the golf course and the lease extension.
Other things that caught his eye in the year-end report was the business licenses were up 5.5 percent, and court fines were up 87 percent.
They were down on construction permits and the wellness center.