Wednesday, November 19, 2003
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Wednesday, November 19, 2003 |
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Tourism Assn. considers
budgets By J. FRANK LYNCH Approving budget proposals for both the Fred Brown Jr. Amphitheater and Peachtree City Tennis Center will be on the agenda of tonight’s Peachtree City Tourism Association meeting. Getting the association’s finances in order is the top priority for the association’s board of directors, meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Gathering Place. It will be the only opportunity to sign off on spending plans before Thursday’s City Council meeting, when the council will be asked to approve the management contract between the city and tourism association. The council will also be asked to give approval to the association’s budget, which starts Dec. 1 and continues through Sept. 30, 2004, the end of the fiscal year. The Development Authority of Peachtree City officially resigned its management agreement to operate the facilities in October, effective the end of this month. The tourism association, which has applied for non-profit status, intends to take over operations of the two venues in less than two weeks. City Manager Bernard McMullen, who serves on the tourism board, said adoption of benefits packages for 16 full-time amphitheater and tennis center employees was the most crucial budget item. City Councilman Steve Rapson was elected chairman of the board last week, and fellow Councilman Murray Weed is vice chairman. City Finance Director Paul Salvatore and volunteer Recreation Commission Chairman David Ring round out the board. Still to come, likely after the first of the year, is a new intergovernmental agreement involving distribution of the city’s hotel-motel tax, McMullen said. The tax revenues are divided according to a set formula agreed to by the DAPC and the Airport Authority, said McMullen. Non-profit status for the tourism association is necessary for it to serve in the same role. While the association will rely on some portion of the guest tax, the goal for both the amphitheater and tennis center is to have operations self-supporting as quickly as possible. For the current fiscal year, the DAPC is budgeted to receive 3.62 percent of the 6 percent hotel-motel tax, with 1.92 percent going to airport uses. The remaining .46 percent is left to the city to spend on the general fund as it sees fit. “My expectation is that it will probably stay fixed for this fiscal year, in terms of the Airport Authority and city accounts, but a good portion of that 3.62 percent that was going to the DAPC was in fact being used for their debt service,” said McMullen. “A new intra-governmental agreement will have to be established between the city and DPAC, and part of that will be determining a new funding mechanism for the DAPC indebtedness.” The DAPC is estimated to have incurred about $1.5 million in debt in recent years, either because operating expenses exceeded revenues or because of cost overruns related to the expansion of the tennis center last year. While the DAPC will hand over
the contracts for running the venues on Dec. 1, the organization will
still be responsible for paying off its debts and eliminating its own
red ink.
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