Depending upon the approval of the Legislature, Jackson residents could be voting in a referendum this fall that would seek to raise the city’s hotel/motel tax and restaurant tax.
Senate Bill 3106 and House Bill 4011 would authorize the city of Jackson to impose an additional 1 percent tax on hotel/motel rooms and a ½ percent on restaurant sales to fund the Jackson Convention and Visitors Bureau, which is also known as Visit Jackson.
The city currently has a 1 percent tax on hotels, motels, and restaurants, which was extended to July 1, 2026, by the Legislature in 2022.
The proposed tax increase would take several steps to come to fruition.
The Jackson City Council would have to adopt a resolution declaring its intention to levy the special tax, setting forth the amount of the special tax to be levied, the date upon which the special tax shall become effective and calling for an election to be held on the levy of the special tax.
The city would also be required to publish once a week for at least three consecutive weeks a notice about the special tax and the referendum in a newspaper published in or having a general circulation in the city.
The increase would have to be approved by 60 percent of the voters in a city election.
Rickey Thigpen, president and CEO of Visit Jackson, said the CVB received funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) for its operation during the global pandemic. The ARPA funds are set to expire at the end of 2026, he said.
The CARES Act and ARPA funds helped boost the marketing ability of Visit Jackson, he said.
“Do we go back to pre-covid marketing funding levels?” he asked.
Jackson’s current tourism taxes are among the lowest in the state, Thigpen said. A modest increase would create the $1.9 million that Visit Jackson received from the ARPA funds, he said.
In 2024, Ridgeland residents voted to allow the city to collect another 1 percent on the gross proceeds of all sales from restaurants and another 2 percent on the gross proceeds of all sales at hotels and motels within the city limits. The increase is in addition to other taxes that are in place.
The city of Ridgeland is using those funds to increase the size of Freedom Ridge Park and add amenities.
Jackson Mayor John Horhn, who was the Mississippi’s tourism director from 1989 1992, favors the increase, Thigpen said, and the Jackson City Council does, too.
The Hinds County legislative delegation co-sponsored the bill that is before the Legislature. On Feb. 16, the Senate bill was referred to the Local and Private/Finance Committee, which reviews bills affecting specific municipalities, counties or private entities rather than the state as a whole. The House bill was referred to the Local and Private Legislation Committee on Feb. 18.
The proposed increase in the hotel/motel tax and restaurant tax would take the Visit Jackson budget from $3.5 million to almost $5 million, Thigpen said, and most of that would be used to market the city and drive conventions and other visitors here, he said.
“The tourism industry is very competitive,” he said. “People don’t just wake up and say I’m going to book a convention in Jackson, Mississippi.”
Pat Fontaine, executive director of the Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association, planned to notify members of the association who own and operate a business in Jackson about the proposal.
He said he plans to get additional information about how the funding from the proposed tax increase would be spent.
In preliminary discussions, Fontaine said he’s spoken with residents in favor of the increase and those who oppose it.
Residents, who oppose the proposed increase, cite problems with the previous city administration concerning transparency and want to know more about how the additional funding would be used, he said.
Visit Jackson staff members market the city in various ways from attending meeting trade shows for meeting planners to partners with Visit Mississippi and other local convention and visitor bureaus such as Visit Oxford or Visit Hattiesburg, he said.
Visit Jackson partners with other convention and visitor bureaus in the state because convention goers sometimes like to visit attractions outside the local area. “We can go across the breadth of the state in three hours,” Thigpen said.
The Local Palate named Jackson as the 2025 Top Culinary Town in the South, he said, which makes it attractive to a segment of the market that travels to experience great food.
Visit Jackson promotes restaurants and motels/hotels in the city to local residents, whereas at one time it focused mainly on visitors coming from out of town, he said.
