A wish list for food tax

A committee of Durham county commissioners and city council members approved a wish list this morning of projects to pay for with a 1 percent prepared-food tax.

They also began plotting strategy for persuading voters to approve it in November.

The wish list provides $14 million for a minor-league baseball museum and $14 million to expand the Hayti Heritage Center, $6 million to improve the Civic Center, $5.5 million for the Museum of Life & Science and smaller amounts for other projects including greenways, the Durham Arts Council and Carolina Theatre, Durham Central Park, a local-history musem and a “museum without walls” on Parrish Street.

“This is going to be an uphill battle,” said city council member Eugene Brown.

Brown said promoters of the tax should emphasize its economic-development benefits.

Commissioner Becky Heron said that, since most of the projects are inside the city, selling the tax to county residents "is going to be a real education piece.

"They've got to understand this is going to benefit them."

Eighty percent of the food-tax revenue would go for visitor attractions, 10 percent for marketing and 5 percent each for workforce development and beautification.

The city also expects the tax would bring in about $5 million per year to start, and steadily increase by a factor of 4.5 percent.

County commissioners chairwoman Ellen Reckhow said the $250,000 for beautification, including cleanup, would almost double the present budget for those purposes.

The list consists of $59.6 million in capital projects to start within the next nine years. That's $7 million to be paid in cash revenues and $52.6 from bonds to be serviced by food-tax income.

The city’s economic development office anticipates about 60 percent of the tax would be paid by Durham County residents. Many residents have seen their property taxes rise this summer as a result of the 2007 revaluation.