A daunting task

By Staff
April 4, 2004
Charlotte Tabereaux faces a daunting task when she takes charge of the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Center on May 3. Among the center's first executive director's first jobs is to raise the money necessary to turn the project's vision into reality.
The project needs an estimated $54.5 million to build a concert hall and 5,000-seat amphitheater, an artists-in-residence village, Choctaw Cultural Center, and hall of fame to recognize writers, actors, dancers, visual artists and musicians.
The center's board of directors found that Tabereaux has solid credentials. Her grant-writing expertise as federal programs coordinator for Rankin County schools seems especially appropriate since nearly $30 million of the total is expected to come from federal and state governments.
The city of Meridian and Lauderdale County are expected to contribute a total of $13.3 million details to be worked out and $11.4 million is expected to be raised from private donations.
When Meridian's Bonita Lakes site was designated by the Legislature over a proposed site in Jackson, lawmakers in their infinite wisdom did not earmark any money. Now, even in this time of squeezed budgets, they have to decide how the state will support the venture.
And, at some point in the not too distant future, Meridian voters will likely be asked to supplement the project's funding by approving new taxes on food and beverages. A bed tax is already in place paid mostly by visitors who stay in local motels ostensibly to fund tourism promotion activities. The reality, however, is that the money goes into the county's general fund and not all of it is spent on tourism.
A new tax on food and beverages would hit anyone who eats or drinks at restaurants in Meridian, including local residents.
If Lauderdale County and Meridian want to get really serious about tourism promotion, all of the money collected through the bed tax should go to tourism promotion. If local residents want to get serious about supporting the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Center, they're going to have to do some serious soul-searching when the referendum on the food and beverage tax comes around.