[03/11/03]Mayor Laurence Leyens and city officials are proposing a novel tax gambit to lure a fishing business to Vicksburg that could become the state’s largest retailer.

A local and private bill seeking state permission for an additional 1 percent tourism sales tax has been OK’d to seek a Bass Pro Shop.

“Basically, you have to pay them to come to your town,” Leyens said, adding that Bass Pro requires that a host community provide a building and their buildings and parking lots cover acres.

The resolution asks the Vicksburg and the Warren County legislative delegation to seek a local and private bill “for an unspecified tourist-related business that might move to Vicksburg.” In Mississippi, cities must have state permission to impose sales taxes. Currently, there’s a 1 percent tax on nightly room rentals and bar and restaurant tabs to support the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau and a separate 1 percent tax on nightly room rentals to help pay for the Vicksburg Convention Center. They are collected in addition to the state’s 7 percent general sales tax.

The money raised by the new tax would, in essence, pay the sporting goods store to do business here.

Bass Pro Shop stores are tourist destinations in and of themselves. They sell everything from fishhooks to houseboats and are known for indoor fish tanks and wild animal displays, shooting ranges and more.

Bass Pro grew from eight feet of shelf space in a Springfield, Mo., liquor store in 1971 to a chain of 15 stores and the company’s headquarters store in Springfield. In addition, Bass Pro has nine additional stores scheduled to open this year and in 2004.

Leyens said a Bass Pro store normally generates about a million visitors to a host community.

The gambit is made more interesting in that Leyens said Vicksburg is trying to divert a Bass Pro store that is being planned for Pearl, 50 miles east. Vicksburg, he said, is trying to make a better offer and would build the project and need about $50,000 a month to pay off the cost of the building and infrastructure. The additional 1 percent tourist sales tax would help pay that, he said.

Rankin County “already has the (tax increment financing) in place, but we want to make them a better deal,” the mayor said.

According to Lenore Barkley, executive director of the VCVB, the tax generated about $759,000 in 2003, which works out to an average of $63,250 per month.

If enacted, the total state and local sales taxes at restaurants and bars would be 9 percent and at hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts taxes would be 10 percent.

There is no deadline for the introduction or consideration of local and private bills in the Legislature. However, this year’s session ends in about three weeks.

The nearest Bass Pro Shops to Vicksburg are in Grapevine (Dallas), Texas, Memphis and Atlanta. The company has announced a store for Bossier City, three hours west.