The Columbus Area Visitors Center won’t seek a food and beverage tax this year to fund sports tourism growth.
And the organization is not likely to advocate for the tax in the foreseeable future, said Visitors Center Executive Director Karen Niverson.
The idea to implement the tax, which recreates a revenue stream from a percentage of taxable food and beverage transactions, surfaced in recommendations from a Phoenix-based consulting group presented to the center’s board of directors earlier this year.
“It was one of several suggestions, but we never really had a plan to move forward with it,” Niverson said.
Fifteen cities and 12 counties in Indiana have enacted the tax that provides each unit of government 1 percent of the gross retail income received from taxable food and beverage transactions.
For more on this story, see Friday’s Republic.