"Debate is Good" about Rec Field, Occupancy Tax Dollars

That question was raised at the Monday, April 16 commissioners meeting, and Hyde County attorney Fred Holsher is considering the question.

Approval of the 2012 recommendations of the Ocracoke Occupancy Tax Board (OTB) was tabled until the next meeting.

"My suggestion to the commissioners was that they do a complete review of the Occupancy Tax Board to determine where the money is going, and if certain requests are legitimate," said George Chamberlin, who owns Captain's Landing Hotel and Suites with his wife, Ocracoke native Betty Howard Chamberlin.

"This is not to say they [the OTB] haven't been doing a good job," said Chamberlin.

He questioned whether the voluntary, advisory OTB has followed the mandate of NC House Bill 882, passed in 2006, which allowed for the creation of a new Ocracoke Occupancy Tax District, authorized it to collect an additional 2% Occupancy Tax, and states that it "shall use at least two-thirds of the proceeds distributed to it to promote travel and tourism in the district and shall use the remainder for tourism-related expenditures in the district."

Hyde commissioners have not yet voted to enact Bill 882.

The heart of debate seems to be whether $60,000 of Occupancy Tax funds should be spent, as recommended by the OTB, to help fund a new recreational field on Ocracoke. 

Is this "tourism-related"?  What can and should be defined as "tourism-related"?  

"Debate is good," said Bob Chestnut, who chairs the Ocracoke Youth Center Board and owns Ride the Wind Surf Shop.

"Our economy is dominated by tourism.  Any money you spend in this community fits the intent and the letter of the law, in my opinion,"  said Chestnut.  "100% of recreational spending fits that bill."

The recreational field committee diligently researched viable tracts of land, and negotiated to purchase one of the last remaining spaces large enough for fields, said Chestnut.  "I hope commissioners realize the urgency of it," he said.  "There are fewer than a handful, and one already disappeared."

The "group that did all the ground work," for the recreational field, a collaboration of residents led by Vince O'Neal and David Scott Esham, "a power group for getting stuff done," deserves all the credit, said Chestnut.

The Ocracoke Youth Center board has non-profit 501(c)3 status, and partnered with the recreational field committee to move forward with purchasing land.

"If the desire of the community is overwhelming to do it, it will happen," said Chestnut, about the proposed field.

While he is "100% in favor of a new ball field, the funding needs to come from appropriate sources," said Chamberlin.

"Everybody feels it's the only money in town," said Chamberlin of the Occupancy Tax.  "All businesses should share the burden" rather than "one sector of the community being asked to raise taxes on their customers."  Sales and use taxes most fairly distribute the burden, he said.

Hyde lawyers are deciding what are the relevant questions. 

Hyde County first collected a 3% Occupancy Tax ("of the gross receipts derived from the rental of any room, lodging or accommodation furnished by a hotel, motel, inn, tourist camp or similar place within the county that is subject to a sales tax imposed by the state") in 1992, after Commissioners enacted House Bill 784, approved in 1991 by the NC General Assembly.

Both the 1991 state bill and the and the 1992 county ordinance simply state that the revenues may be used for "any public purpose."  (To read the Hyde ordinance, follow the link, and type "Occupancy tax" into the search bar.)

The legal question is whether the 2006 legislation, never enacted by Hyde Commissioners, supersedes the 1991 law.

Former Ocracoke Commissioner Alton Ballance saw the tax enacted while he was in elected office, from 1984 - 1992.  "The original intent of all occupancy taxes was to deal with travel and tourism," he said.  The state allowed Hyde County a law that was deliberately "general to allow room for needs our county could not or would not provide," said Ballance.

Commissioner Darlene Styron, who represents the Ocracoke District of Hyde County, said "I appreciate everyone who serves on all boards.  I trust that the board is doing their job."

Commissioners are ultimately responsible for making sure the law is upheld, said Stryon.  Her concern is that appointed, advisory boards understand the laws and by-laws governing their actions.

OTB chair Stella O'Neal has served for almost 20 years.  She was appointed to the board by David Styron when he was Ocracoke's County Commissioner.  She began chairing the OTB after Celia Isbrecht stepped down.

The OTB relies on the county ordinance to guide its actions, said O'Neal.  They try to make the best possible decisions for the island as a whole, she said. 

Trudy Austin, Cyndi Gaskill, Martha Garrish and Wayne Clark make up the rest of the OTB.  "They all came on maybe about the same time" that she began serving as chair, said O'Neal.

The ordinance says the commissioners shall "annually appoint" a committee of five Ocracoke residents, two of whom shall be "nominated by the Ocracoke Civic and Business Association, Inc." 

Because the board does not have its own by-laws, and awaits new appointments, all five members are long standing.

"Nobody has removed me.  Not yet," said O'Neal.  She had only heard "second hand" reports of questions raised at the Monday Commissioners meeting when I called her on Thursday afternoon.  "I think that with any board you'd want people that's been on there a few years," she said.

Only once has the Hyde Board of Commissioners made changes to the recommendations of the OTB.  It is not rubber-stamping, but faith in the integrity of the work done by the board, said Commissioner Styron.

Suggestions that the OTB operates in secrecy are unfounded, said O'Neal.  "We've never had a meeting that the public hasn't been present.  We have the meeting, I don't adjourn the meeting, and we go into our working meeting.  Most of the time nobody stays," she said.

The OTB is an example of "perfect local government," said Chestnut.  "Once a year the community sits down and figures out how to spend a pool of money," he said.  "It's not like the board is isolated from tourism.  A good cross-section of the community is represented."

"There are probably going to be more requests next year.  It can only go so far.  We need to look into raising money for the community to do what needs to be done," said Chamberlin, who supports raising the sales tax an additional .25 cents authorized by the state.  The revenues from that would be returned to the general Hyde County budget.

"It works amazingly well," said Paula Schramel, a member of several non-profit boards that request funds from the OTB.  "People don't ask for more than they need, they consider the needs of others in the community, and the board considers everything."

"It's an interesting debate.  Why not have the same debate about all that sales tax money that comes into Hyde County," asked Ballance.

"When you get right down to it, it's all connected," said O'Neal.