The Dunwoody City Council has rejected a proposal to increase the excise tax for hotel and motel room rentals, dealing a blow to the city's bid for the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.
All along, city officials have considered their effort to land the hall a long shot. But it's not quite time for "Taps" yet.
The vote Tuesday night left boosters of the project disappointed and confused, particularly those in the city’s fledgling Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. This was the bureau’s first major project to come before the council and the rejection left them unsure of what it might take to generate support for future projects.
“This is our primary mission,” said Brad Sturgeon, chairman of the bureau’s board of directors. “We’d be hard pressed to come up with anything better. That said, we've always known it was a long shot.”
Sturgeon said the board and other supporters of the project would continue their efforts to bring the Hall of Fame to Dunwoody. But now they'll have to make their pitch without the prospect of financial backing from the city.
The Hall of Fame Authority started soliciting bids to move the attraction from Macon last year after the state announced that it wanted to end an annual subsidy that has allowed the poorly attended hall to operate since its opening in 1996.
Built for $6.6 million, the Macon facility was intended to attract 100,000 visitors a year, but recently drew only about a quarter of that number. Last year, the state provided most of the museum's $880,000 budget. This year, the state reduced its funding to $386,000 and the General Assembly ordered the authority to seek bids from new hosts.
Dunwoody, Woodstock, Athens and Dahlonega all have made formal bids to the Hall of Fame Authority. Two weeks ago in a survey of authority members, Dunwoody finished last among the four cities who submitted bids.
The proposal to increase the hotel tax voted down Tuesday was supposed to address the authority’s concerns about funding for the hall, given that Dunwoody’s bid was the only one to rely solely on private funding.
Under the proposed tax increase from 5 percent to 6 percent, officials estimated the city could raise about $1.2 million over three years. Supporters of the project also noted all of the Convention and Visitor's Bureau board members and Dunwoody’s five hotels backed the bid and were willing to accept the new tax increase.
But council member Denis Shortal was unmoved, saying he doubted the museum would ever be able to support itself and that he'd received overwhelming e-mail response in opposition to the tax.
"It just doesn't pass the smell test," Shortal said. "I just don't think it's going to be a successful venue and I don't want public funds to go to it."
Councilman Danny Ross, who recused himself from the vote because of his role as chairman of the Dunwoody Music Conservancy, remained adamant that the project would be a financial boon for the city.
"At the end of the day, this was an economic development plan," Ross said Wednesday. "The return on our investment would have been outstanding. If not this [project], I can't imagine what."
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