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Greenville waiting to hear from Legislature about tourism tax.

Article Excerpt
GREENVILLE -- A proposed 1% tourism tax to fund construction of a $4.2-million meeting facility has plenty of proponents -- and opponents -- in this historic river city.

While many Greenville business owners are on the same side as many city officials on the issue, others disagree that the 1% tourism tax is a good idea at this particular point in time. Still other business owners are opposed to the idea of putting a meeting facility in downtown Greenville because so many businesses on the outskirts of town would, according to them, be left out of the mix.

"Seventy percent of the motel rooms that are part of a national chain are out here on the highway," said Doug DeLap, general manager of the Ramada Inn in Greenville. "In addition, most of the smaller and independently run ones are out here also. Probably 80% of the total number of hotel and motel rooms in Greenville are out here. So the only rooms downtown were built in the last five years by the casinos because of the Mississippi Gaming Commission's regulations. And I don't know what the casinos are contributing to this venture, but they're the ones who will benefit from it."

DeLap said it's hard for him to be positive about a 1% hike in the tourism tax. He's already paying a 1% tourism tax for the Washington County Convention Center, and said to double that tax is a ludicrous proposal to make.

"I have a real problem with that because I have...