New Proposal to Help Conference Center– State Law Says No

What’s next when it comes to the financially struggling Manchester-Coffee County Conference Center? Stan Teal, a member of the Public Building Authority (PBA), has requested the Coffee County government start charging a hotel-motel tax within the city limits of Manchester and use the money collected to fund the conference center. The city already implements a hotel-motel tax.
The center was built in 2002 for $3.5 million dollars with around $1.5 million still owed. Over the last four years alone the center has lost $1.5 million.
State law prohibits the county from levying a hotel-motel tax in cities.
Teal recently told county leaders that before 1988 counties and cities could both enforce a hotel-motel tax.
Teal suggested that a hotel-motel tax could be adopted by the county through a private act approved by the state legislature.
As we reported, the Coffee County Commission approved a resolution asking the state legislature to approve a private act that would establish a hotel-motel tax in rural Coffee County only. This does not include hotels or motels inside the city limits of Manchester or Tullahoma.