NATCHEZ — Allowing tourists to help pick up the tab for a new recreation complex in Natchez is a viable option — but jumping the sales tax procedural hurdles could cause long delays to the project.

Adams County Board of Supervisors Financial Advisor Demery Grubbs briefed the supervisors at a special meeting Tuesday about the step-by-step procedure for tacking an extra sales tax onto certain items to pay for recreation.

Although the board is undecided about pursuing authorization to create a special sales tax to fund recreation, County Attorney Bobby Cox asked Grubbs to appear to explain how the process works.

Grubbs said either the board of supervisors or Natchez Board of Aldermen would first have to agree they want to fund recreation with sales tax.

Secondly, a local board must request local and private legislation from the state legislature that would authorize the local government to have a local election on the issue.

Lastly, a local election must be held with at least a 60-percent majority supporting the added sales tax.

Once the proposed sales tax is passed by a majority of voters, Grubbs said six months might pass before revenues from the tax are actually collected for use — based on his experience.

District 1 Supervisor Mike Lazaraus said attempting to fund recreation with sales taxes could hold up the project for approximately two years, considering the amount of time it would take to complete steps and reach a ballot.

“That’s a way to kill recreation because it takes too long to get done,” Lazarus said.

Larzarus said the public might become angry if the recreation project’s progress is slowed.

“I don’t want to slow up the wheels on the process,” Lazarus said.

Grubbs said historically, the state legislature likes to see unanimous consent of a local board in a request for local and private legislation.

“(The legislature) does not want to see boards split up,” Grubbs said.

Lazarus said if all other supervisors, aldermen and school board members were in favor of a sales tax, he would not prevent the sales tax from happening.

“I can keep an open mind,” Lazarus said.

Before the board members make decisions about funding, Board of Supervisors President Darryl Grennell said the board should find out the project costs from the Natchez-Adams Recreation Commission.

“I think we need to find out what the numbers are and agree to a design and then sit down and talk about financing,” Grennell said.

Grubbs agreed funding decisions will be more appropriate to make once the boards know the dollar amount they are trying to finance.

At that point, the boards can explore options for adding a special sales tax to fund recreation, Grubbs said.

Grubbs said the board could opt to tax any of a variety of options.

District 2 Supervisor Henry Watts said the kind of sales tax he would like to use for recreation would include businesses used by tourists, such as restaurants, hotels, motels and liquor stores.

If the supervisors enacted the special sales tax, it would apply to the county outside the Natchez corporate limits. Grubbs said only a minimal number of business would be affected in the county outside the city limits due to the lack of hotels and restaurants in those areas. More than 95 percent of those businesses in the county affected by the tax would likely be inside city limits, Grubbs estimated.

Watts said adding the tax to businesses where tourists spend money is appropriate because hotels, motels and restaurants are the same businesses that will benefit from the construction of a recreation complex.

District 5 Supervisor S.E. “Spanky” Felter said at an August board meetings sales tax was the only fair way to fund Natchez-Adams Recreation Commission projects.

The supervisors discussed the possibility of using sales tax at a Sept. 20 board meeting and voted to direct Cox to research sales tax law and procedure.

In other business at Tuesday’s meeting, the supervisors agreed to accept a bond bid for road overlay work from Trustmark National Bank.

The bid offered a 2.9 percent interest rate for a $2.4 million negotiable note to be paid in a maximum of five years. The board can pay the note off early if it wants to or is able to, said bond and note advisor Sam Keyes of Butler Snow.

Other bids offered in response to an ad placed in early September included a 3.25 percent interest rate note from United Mississippi Bank and a 3.45 interest rate note from Concordia Bank.

The $2.4 million will be spent on overlay work on a variety of roads to be determined by the supervisors and road manager, Road Manager Curley Jones said.