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Committee forwards revised ATAX policies to full council with March application window
Summary
The Finance & Administration Committee agreed to send a resolution to revise policies for processing local accommodations and hospitality tax (ATAX) applications to the full council, and staff said roughly $2 million is available for the March application cycle.
Beaufort County staff presented a resolution to repeal earlier ATAX resolutions and replace them with an updated set of policies and procedures for processing applications to the county's 3% local accommodations tax and 2% hospitality tax funds. The Finance & Administration Committee reviewed the rewrite and agreed to forward it to county council for consideration on Monday.
Harriet summarized the history of earlier resolutions and explained the revised document restores a prior application approach while incorporating council direction to fund county projects like boat landing repairs and fishing piers. Staff noted the county has "a little over $2,000,000" available for this cycle and recommended opening the application period March 1–31 so awards can be made this fiscal year.
Council members requested clarifications, including whether applicants would be required to attend an information session and how periodic payments versus lump-sum awards would be handled for county departments. Harriet said county departments would be held to the same reporting standards and that department awards would be transferred to departmental project codes. A member asked for more specific historical award dates in the application responses rather than a yes/no box; staff said records would provide those dates.
Committee members generally supported moving the resolution to the full council without objection. Staff said the committee for scoring would be made up of department directors rather than a citizen committee and clarified eligibility rules for projects in unincorporated Beaufort County. The committee will consider the new policies and open the application window March 1–31, 2026.
