My son, Peter, had a large, pink ceramic piggy bank when he was a kid, received as a Christmas present. Through a narrow slot on the piggy’s back, one could deposit all manner of coin and even a folded dollar bill. A plastic stopper on the pig’s belly could be pried out to empty the moolah, but Peter was a saver, and what went in didn’t come out.
The city of Pevely can identify.
Officials there have a large piggy bank where money from a hotel/motel tax is being deposited. With voter permission, the 5 percent tax has been charged for four years to guests at Super 8, Pevely’s only hotel. There’s one big difference between Pevely’s piggy bank and Peter’s, though.
If Pevely leaders could take out the city’s money – $120,000 at last check – they would, and spend it on projects and programs to promote their town. But Pevely’s piggy has no plastic stopper and might as well be made of graphene.
That’s the hardest substance scientists know of. They make it in the lab by applying tape to graphite and pulling it off quickly, over and over and over. The carbon particles on the tape eventually amount to a one-atom-thick layer of priceless graphene. (This was a teachable moment, brought to you by Leader World Headquarters. Of course, no one here had to look up any of that information on Wikipedia.)
So, to get a sense of this, imagine that Pevely’s piggy bank is made of impenetrable pink graphene and then reflect on the 1981 insecticide commercial about the “roach motel,” where the bugs could get in but couldn’t get out.
Pevely can’t spend its money because of a state law, echoed by a city ordinance, that sets up membership requirements for tourism commissions. Legislation dating back about 20 years required these groups – which have the power to access and spend the money collected through a hotel-motel tax for tourism purposes – to have five members, all city residents, including a representative from the hotel-motel industry, two members who are active in the tourism industry and two others with a local business background.
Finding people with those specific qualifications has been tough for the two other Jefferson County cities with a hotel-motel tax – Arnold and Festus – and impossible for Pevely, whose 5,600 population is about one-fourth of Arnold’s (21,319 in 2016) and less than half of Festus’ (12,104).
Since Pevely voters created the tax in 2013, the city has never been able to muster membership for a commission. So, the money that comes in, about $30,000 annually, is untouchable.
It’s frustrating, Pevely City Administrator Todd Melkus acknowledged.
“Yeah, it is,” he said. “I’ve only been here for a short time (he was hired in May), and that’s one of the first things that jumped out at me. That fund is just going to keep growing and growing,”
And there’s potential for Pevely to someday need a really BIG piggy bank. Melkus said Drury Corp. owns property at three corners of the I-55 interchange in Pevely. The Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 draws a significant number of out-of-towners to the Super 8, Melkus noted, so another hotel development might look attractive.
Kevin Carbery reported in a recent story that Festus and Arnold have struggled to keep their commissions operational. Both towns have four hotels and pull in big bucks; Festus’ annual tourism tax take is about $220,000 while Arnold’s is about $160,000.
I can just imagine how the towns of De Soto, Hillsboro, Byrnes Mill and Kimmswick wish they could join the party. They’d need two things: a major hotel operation to make it worth their while followed by voter approval of the tax.
Melkus said his city is motivated to fix the problem, perhaps by working with 114th District state Rep. Becky Ruth (R-Festus) for a legislative remedy, or through changing the city’s ordinance, although there may be some legal considerations tied to that option.
Research for this column turned up one nugget of good news for all three towns. Richard Sheets, deputy director of the Missouri Municipal League, said the section of state law dealing with tourism commission membership was amended last session and took effect Aug. 28. Membership is no longer restricted to a city’s residents but has been extended to county residency.
Jefferson County’s population is about 225,000, so Pevely’s pool of potential tourism commission members is now 41 times bigger!
It wouldn’t seem possible, but that pink graphene piggy bank has a chink in it.
Peter’s pig bit the dust in his sixth year. His parents were enjoying quality time with him in that time-honored activity of wildly chasing a hysterical child through the house until something gets broken. Peter tore into his bedroom and grabbed the lightweight metal bookcase that had the bank on top.
It took some time to sort out his money from among the shards of pink ceramic pig.
Pevely probably wishes it were as easy as that to get its hands on its cash.
