City Council Work Session

Stacy HallAnd I honestly, I think that's reasonable. We only have so many staff and they can only work so many hours in a day, week, month, et cetera. I do want to point out, I guess, some of the other perks. Not, you know, I was kind of hitting on some of the questions and concerns, I think we don't have numbers for, and I would love to see if we can get them either through the revenue office or somewhere else. But what are we bringing in, right? When people are getting tired of the lines of the food trucks and they decide to go into a local business instead, what additional revenue did they receive that day versus an average Saturday where there's nothing going on? You know, how much did we generate meals tax on that day? I think what is

very, I'll call it frustrating, is a lot of the food trucks that come in for this, for Rock the Block, for all the other events, they're not registered here in the city. They're registered in the county or West Virginia or some other places. So the meals tax that's generated on that day in the city does not go to the city. The only time they pay the city meals tax is they eat at a city business. And I don't know if there's a way that Richmond could help us work on that to do something because the event is being held here within our jurisdiction, but it would seem to me that maybe there's another way to work with these food truck companies or these other vendors that are coming in that are generating sales that we could somehow benefit. I feel like that would help

end it a little bit earlier or, you know, kind of flex the time so that we're encouraging people to stay and move around our city. I do also know from rock the block conversations that many of our local businesses, other than a couple of the key restaurants that are right along the main strip, because people are not interested in shopping for clothing or shoes or anything else during that time. Like, they're there for music. They're there for fun and entertainment. And so as much as I would think they would stop by or sidewalk sales would be great, it's not a huge revenue generator other than what's happening in that confined area. And again, it's not city meals tax that's being generated. So those are things that I would like to see if we could try to estimate, ask, you know.

Rachel McQuillenI agree that we need a framework for sure piggybacking off of Councilmember Hall's comment about the meals tax I do wonder if we can adjust permitting or do something along that lines to make up some of what catch some of those fees that we're missing from not getting the meals tax or other things that's the kind of information officials to really know what the return on investment, you know, could be in doing that. Like, okay, we lose the meals tax if we bring in all these food trucks, but if we have a permitting fee that is adjusted to compensate for some of that, that could, you know, maybe balance that out. So that was my thought in bringing economic development into the mix was more of looking

JC MartinezstaffMEALS TAX, THESE TAXES ARE PROBABLY ALMOST 100% PAID BY Individuals that would come and stay here more than likely don't live here. That's why they're in a hotel room. So it is really reducing the burden on the residents and their real estate tax rate by trying to reassign that potential revenue to the TOT.

Stacy HallOkay, thank you. It's just a very quick question comment for budget memo number five, which was regarding the meals tax. I just wanted to point out for those at home that might not be reading the budget memos as we are. The question I had asked was whether the increase in the meals tax revenue was based upon the cost of food inflation or whether or not we were seeing more people actually in our restaurants. and I also want to point out to the credit of the EDA for all they do and bringing in new businesses and Chamber of Commerce and all those for kind of, you know, keeping things going here. Based upon what staff has shared here is that the increase in the meals tax is relatable to increased traffic in our restaurants and not increased food costs. So I think that that's