SOUTHAVEN – Southaven residents voted in favor of a 1-percent tax on restaurants that will go toward developing and maintaining the city’s parks system.
Voters favored the Penny For Your Parks tax 624 votes to 214 votes.
The tax received more than two-thirds support from voters when it was voted on in a referendum last October but the Mississippi Legislature, in a bill this spring, required a second vote.
Tuesday’s vote garnered 74.5 percent support from voters, more than the two-thirds support in last year’s vote.
The Mississippi Legislature passed a bill allowing the tax if the city received 60 percent support in the second vote.
Mayor Greg Davis said the city should be able to begin collections on the tax as soon as Dec. 1.
“The voters of Southaven have taken a huge step forward in solidifying our commitment to our way of life by not only continuing to fund our parks program but securing additional funding for all departments within the general fund,” Davis said.
The new tax is expected to generate $1 million per year if passed and city officials estimate 60 percent of that revenue will come from people who live outside of DeSoto County.
Davis said the city will now appeal to the Mississippi Legislature to remove the Penny For Your Parks bill’s repealer clause that allows the bill to be repealed in 2014.
One the repealer is removed, the city will be able to issue bonds and begin work on a $35 million parks improvement plan that includes new baseball, softball and soccer fields, indoor tennis courts, a skate park and a dog park.
via Desoto Times Tribune > News > Parks tax passes.
