Steve Atcher Video - The Elizabethtown, Kentucky City Council Meeting Agenda?

Visit us at http://hillbillyreport.org/ The proposed agreement between the city of Elizabethtown and the Elizabethtown Tourism and Convention Bureau for paying for the development of a city sports park was dropped from todays agenda, but Mayor David Willmoth said it will come back on the table at some time.

That could come as early as next Monday, when a special meeting might be called.

Councilman and Restaurant tax opponent Steve Atcher questioned the measures abrupt disappearance at Mondays meeting. Willmoth was close-lipped about the developments but confirmed that a municipal order was on the ballot but was dropped. When Atcher pressed the mayor on the issue and asked if it would come up again, the mayor replied sure. When Atcher asked when, the mayor issued only I cant tell you when.

Despite the measure being dropped, HardinOnline obtained a draft copy of the municipal order.

According to the draft, the city would issue bonds in the amount of $29 million for construction of the park. In return for the city taking on the debt, the Bureau would agree to repay the debt out of proceeds from the restaurant tax.

As part of the agreement, the draft states: the City shall covenant not to repeal said Restaurant Tax until all of the Bonds are fully paid and retired.

The city also agrees in the municipal order that once the bonds are paid in full, the city will take on the expenses of operating, maintaining and insuring the park.

The restaurant tax is bringing in well more than $2 million per year, according to the latest quarterly statements available on the citys website. According to the March quarterly report, the tax brought in $525,282 between January and March 2010.

With that much money coming in, the agreement also reserves the right for the Bureau to apply any left over funds to any other project it desires.

Depending on the length of the bonds and the interest rates the city gets, that could prove to be a substantial amount of money left over for other projects that the Bureau would have sole discretion in deciding.

It is not clear just how the city can guarantee to not repeal the restaurant tax, since a re-classification to a second-class city, which is where Elizabethtown falls by its population, would disqualify it from having a restaurant tax.

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