Richmond County TDA gives group $60,000, including $55,000 via private donations
Sales tax increase could generate $600,000 to $700,000 per year
By Kevin Spradlin
PeeDeePost.com
ROCKINGHAM — At first glance, the Committee to Promote Growth and Economic Development is a grassroots collection of parents, many of whom have children who play baseball, softball and soccer and who stand to benefit from a new Richmond County Sports Complex.
The Richmond County Commissioners in July approved putting the initiative on the Nov. 4 ballot a sales tax increase of a one-fourth of cent. If approved by voters, the county sales tax rate would increase to 7 percent from 6.75 percent. In other words, for every $1 spent, the consumer would be taxed 7 cents beginning Jan. 1, 2015.
The hike, if approved, is expected to raise between $600,000 and $700,000 each year towards the project, said Martie Butler, of Richmond County’s economic development team.
Committee members include Keith Parsons, Vagas Jackson, Kristie Long, Michelle Parrish, Alan Anderson, Charles Hudson, Danny Lampley, Earl Nicholson, Eddie Sampson, Eric Thompson, Jackie Webb, Jamie Lambeth, Jennifer Wrenn, Matthew Liles and Mica Way. Many, if not all, have children that played in athletic All-Star tournaments and travel tournaments this past summer in Laurinburg, Carthage, Garner, Troy, Eden, Davidson and more.
But the group has some brains behind it, and because of that it also has some funding. Since Friday, the group has launched a Facebook page and website — VoteYesforParksandRec.com — and placed many of its first batch of 1,000 campaign signs in front yards across Richmond County.
At its Aug. 12 meeting, the Richmond County Tourism Development Authority voted to give the group $60,000 towards promoting the sales tax hike and the project — $55,000 of that came by way of private donations and $5,000 from hotel/motel tax revenue, which funds the TDA. And whatever members of the Committee to Promote Growth and Economic Development don’t know, Parsons said Campaign Connections, a Raleigh-based political consulting and marketing firm, is a phone call or email away.
The TDA is governed by a seven-member board, with four members appointed by the Richmond County Commissioners, two by Rockingham City Council and one from the Richmond County Chamber of Commerce. Rockingham City Manager Monty Crump, city planner John Massey and Kim Williams, events coordinator, serve as the non-paid interim staff of the TDA, per an agreement between the city and TDA, until the TDA approves and implements a new staff/support structure.
To be sure, the project — as proposed in the city of Rockingham’s Master Plan as designed by WHN Architects, of Charlotte — would alter the landscape of about 118 acres off Old Aberdeen Road. The facility would include four baseball/softball fields, three youth baseball/softball fields, four more adult baseball/softball fields, an 18-hole disk golf course, a tennis facility, a soccer complex comprised of five playing fields and an activity center, complete with a miniature train, a splash park, a carousel, a playground and a dog park, among other amenities.
The project, as proposed, would be completed in seven phases, led by a four-field baseball complex and infrastructure improvements to set the stage for the following six phases. There is no price tag to the overall project available on the city of Rockingham’s website.
For group members, it’s a double-sided argument — which is reflected in the campaign’s red, white and blue signs on which one side encourages “Vote yes for progress and growth” and, on the other, “Vote yes for progress and growth.” Parsons said it’s been “a very easy process” to gain supporters.
“It’s really just a matter of explaining our position,” Parsons said. ”
Along with the county commissioners and city of Rockingham, the Richmond County Chamber of Commerce and the Richmond County Board of Realtors already have endorsed the sales tax hike initiative and the project. On Tuesdsay, the Rockingham Downtown Corporation added its name to the growing list of supporters.
Butler said she was tasked with finding out about similar sports complex funding initiatives in Orange, Montgomery and Alamance counties. All three passed, though it took Orange County two attempts to gain a simple majority of voters’ support.
Butler said it’s all about “heads in beds” and such a complex would be able to host a wide range of tournaments that attract teams far away enough to stay in hotels once in Rockingham.
It would have, she said Tuesday to the group of downtown Rockingham business owners, “a big economic impact.”
In addition, Butler said she and others are hoping for “a snowball effect” — the more visitors to Richmond County, the more likely someone will visit and want to put down roots or invest.
She called the sales tax an “across-the-board” approach that reaches everyone. It is, Butler said, “probably one of the most fair taxes … not just singling out landowners.”
She mentioned the recent economic announcements of Enviva, a wood-pellet plant that aims to build and operate near Hamlet, and the purchase of the former Thera-Firm building by Affordable Hosiery.
The complex, Butler said, would bring “quality of life and give kids something to do.”
That would, she figured, make Richmond County that much more attractive to other businesses looking to relocate and take advantage of the area’s low cost of living.
RDC member Katie Rohleder, of Discovery Place KIDS, said it’s important to note the complex is more than sports. It also would include such amenities as a dog park.
Neal Cadieu said the complex would attract “not only young people, the players, but the adults who have to bring them here. I think it’s a fantastic advantage for the county.”
RDC President Susan Kelly, of the North Carolina Extension Office in Rockingham, weighed in.
“I’ve been thinking about Enviva,” Kelly said, “and whether those people (who work there) would choose to live here and what we could do about quality of life, which is a lot of why people choose to live where they live. That would be one of those pieces.”
Parsons noted an obvious benefit to the sales tax — regardless of rate, revenue comes from all over.
“It’s fairly distributed around the county. It’s not targeting landowners,” he said. “Plus, a great point to me is it’s not only people that live here who will be funding this.”
Parsons said plenty of beach-goers and truck drivers, and other passers-by, travel through Richmond County and stop for fuel, food and other services.
In short, he and other members of his group feel that “we certainly need all we can here. It’s a great way to add some visitors on the weekends. “This is going to benefit the children of Richmond County for years and years to come.”