Food and beverage tax edging closer to reality
Those who dine and drink at Merrillville restaurants should count on seeing an extra 1% added to their bills as soon as the town’s allowed to implement it.
Town Council President Rick Bella, D-5, assured residents at its Feb. 28 meeting that nothing has been passed in the Indiana General Assembly yet, though the fact that Senate Bill 428, which proposes one, passed the State Senate and is now headed to the House for more debate is a good sign. If it makes it to Governor Eric Holcomb’s desk, the town isn’t going to turn down the chance to bring up to an estimated $1.3 million into its coffers.
“It just authorizes us to do it (if it passes),” Bella said. “We can then increase tourism and support our parks (better with more money).”
The bill creates the ability for the town or city to enact a food and beverage tax of up to 1% in .25% increments to be used in Merrillville’s case to expand the Dean and Barbara White Community Center and in Jasper’s case to create a $34 million multi-use community facility. The expansion would allow for two additional basketball courts that could be converted into four additional volleyball courts, and the additional court space would allow the town to play host to regional sports tournaments that would encourage tourism, Bella told the Post-Tribune previously.
“Some of those are two and three-day events. People will be spending the night and supporting local businesses,” Bella said. Additional space would also create the ability to serve more young people.
What the bill wouldn’t do, according to Councilman Shawn Pettit, D-6, is place an undue burden on those who may not
be able to afford going out often.
“This is only on prepared food in restaurants and bars. It has nothing to do with grocery stores, so it will not affect those on a limited budget,” he said.
A second bill, also crafted by Senator Eddie Melton, D-Gary, would route an expected $18 million in taxes to a convention and economic development fund to kickstart financing on a $120 million convention center and for construction of a new $90 million downtown Gary transit hub, as well as allow the Lake County Council to adopt a 5% increase in the county innkeeper’s tax. A tweak to the bill proposed by State Republicans, however, opens the convention center location to all of Lake County, which pleases Town Manager Pat Reardon.
“I’m encouraged by the fact that there’s positive movement on this, especially since there was a study commissioned a few years ago that identified two top locations in Merrillville,” Reardon said. “Those locations are still available.”
Councilman Leonard White, D-7, asked Reardon why the town couldn’t just build its own convention center.
“That’s a thought-provoking idea, but there’s an awful lot that goes into it,” Reardon said. “We would directly compete with ourselves and the other communities (if they did), but if we agreed to it and had the money (anything’s possible).”