North Augusta’s hospitality and accommodations tax collections are starting to rebound from revenues impacted by COVID-19 during 2020.
The improvements are reflected in the third quarter financial report presented to council members during the Oct. 12 study session.
Finance Director Cammie Hayes said the hospitality tax collections through the first, second and third quarter stand at just over $1.6 million, about 18% higher than at the same point in 2019. During 2020, the city collected just shy of $1.7 million, but that was an overall decrease of 5.33% from 2019.
The accommodations tax is also perking up after dropping by nearly 40% in 2020 from the 2019 collections. So far in 2021, the city has collected $175,491, compared to just $137,752 in all of 2020. The accommodations tax pumped $229,047 into the city coffers in 2019.
MORE: Public Hearing Set for 2022 North Augusta Budget Overview
Turning her attention to the tax increment revenues, Hayes said the city has collected more than $3.7 million in just the first three quarters of 2021, compared to about $1.7 million in all of 2020.
“As you’ll recall, we did collect two years’ worth of taxes for those parcels in Riverside Village, including the MID (Municipal Improvement District) payments, penalties, interest that were collected at the first part of 2021. So that’s why that number is so significant for one year,” Hayes said.
[adrotate banner=”15″]
The increase was connected to outstanding taxes, special assessments, penalties and interest for tax year 2019 in the MID along with outstanding city taxes and special assessments for 2020. The total, $1.961.106, was paid on April 30, 2021.
The money is from parcels that are part of the Riverside Village development project near the Savannah River. In December 2020, 13 of the properties were sold in a tax sale. The owner, Greenstone Properties, Inc. of Atlanta, had one year to satisfy the debts and keep ownership and the payment this year accomplished that.
One area not showing appreciable growth is parking revenues. To date in 2021, the city has collected just under $69,000 compared to more than $128,000 in 2019.
MORE: Georgia Avenue Site is a Done Deal for North Augusta Public Safety
“This is reflective of a new parking deck down there that the city is not benefiting from. We’re still collecting a little more than half. We are not currently meeting projections, but it is not prohibiting us from being able to meet our debt payments,” she explained. “As long as other things were sustaining, the city still had the ability to meet that service payments and staff continues to work toward revisiting the master parking agreement and making changes and we would certainly recommend looking at updating the financial model once all of that gets updated.”
Hayes said the city has the $2.3 million payment for debt service that’s due Nov. 1, 2021.
“We’ll be making that payment this week. We have enough collections on-hand to make that payment. Our May 1st payment in 2022 will be about $1.6 million and we already have enough cumulative collections on hand to make that payment. So, as of October one we have begun collections on our November 2022 payment,” she said.
Aside from the financial update, council members learned there will be a resolution on the Oct. 18 agenda to allow the return of one of North Augusta’s favorite events. The North Augusta Lions Club is requesting a permit to hold the Christmas parade on Dec. 5. The 2020 parade was cancelled because of COVID-19.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a Staff Reporter with The Augusta Press. You can reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
[adrotate banner=”51″]
