City of Jacksonville outlines funding proposal for new civic center

KLTV
By Erin Wides
Published: Oct. 17, 2022 at 4:13 PM GMT-6

JACKSONVILLE, Texas (KLTV) - In November, City of Jacksonville voters will consider 22 amendments to the City Charter and whether to add an additional two percent Venue Tax to the Hotel Occupancy Tax.

Several months ago the City of Jacksonville authorized the purchase of the former Cherokee Ranch Clubhouse, according to City Manager James Hubbard.

“About 15,000 square-feet, there’s a larger kind of ballroom that will be available for rent and then there will be several breakout rooms for meetings and conference-style events,” he said. “It overlooks our 18-hole golf course and it’s a beautiful, beautiful place.”

Hubbard said an architectural firm has started looking at the facility and how they can make multipurpose improvements to the space.

“The space is really intended to be used by everybody, from Quinceañeras to weddings, to different private events,” Hubbard said. “But really we want to do things that bring people into Jacksonville, that’s the whole point.”

Funding the project would come from a Venue Tax, which is a levy on hotel night stays. Hubbard said that tax is anticipated to generate about $100,000 of additional revenue to the city, should that proposition pass. Hubbard said it doesn’t have an impact on taxpayers or homeowners in the city.

“It just has an impact to people who stay in our hotels. And the whole goal is to host events at the civic center that bring people into the hotels,” he said.

There are 22 other propositions on the ballot that are part of The Charter Election.

“There’s some relating to term limits for our city council members, others about expanding over the limitations on expansion of the number of seats on the city council, and another about our zoning regulations here in town and giving the city the maximum allowance per state law to locally control zoning,” Hubbard said.

To learn more about the propositions you can review the sample ballot.