Officials from

Peachtree City's development and airport authorities have assured the

City Council they are taking steps to trim their budgets in light of the

downturn in the city's hospitality industry.

Both authorities

rely on payments from the city's hotel-motel tax for funds in their operating

budgets. But now the hotel-motel tax collections are down due to a slowdown

in the industry, and city officials are predicting a potential shortfall

of at least $90,000 from the $939,000 it was projected to raise this year.

Last year,

council raised the tax from 3 to 5 percent, mainly to fund the expansion

of the city tennis center along with improvements to the city amphitheater

and Falcon Field. The tennis center expansion is already underway, as

are the improvements to Falcon Field.

The debt service

for the tennis center expansion will amount to $186,000 for the year,

while the hangar expansion at Falcon Field will cost $21,000 a year.

When the hotel-motel

tax increase was approved, both authorities entered an agreement with

the city that requires the city to give each authority monthly payments

while the city collects the hotel-motel tax revenues.

But officials

are worried that the hospitality industry won't rebound enough to avoid

a shortfall in hotel-motel tax revenues by the end of the fiscal year.

Already council has increased the tax again from 5 to 6 percent to avoid

a dramatic shortfall.

And at a special

workshop Wednesday night, officials from the Development Authority and

Airport Authority said they were willing to work with council so the city

doesn't get stuck with the shortfall at the end of the fiscal year. But

both authorities indicated they needed more time to prepare a detailed

cutback plan for council to review.

The Development

Authority has pledged to provide more information to council by it's first

meeting in February. But Cathy Nelmes, chair of the Airport Authority,

said it needed more time until March because it is just beginning to plan

its next six month budget.

Mayor Steve

Brown said he wanted to make sure the city wasn't using the general fund

to make up any shortfall in the hotel-motel tax.

Nelmes said

it would be better for the airport authority if it could keep collecting

its regular $10,000 supplement from the city and "settle up"

at the end of the fiscal year if the shortfall remains.

Council member

Murray Weed said he would like to see more detailed financial reports

from both agencies, such as salary breakdowns of various employees.

The meeting

began on a slightly contentious note as Councilman Steve Rapson and Development

Authority member Robert Brooks debated whether there was an actual loss

on the books yet in the hotel-motel revenues.

Brooks argued

that compared to revenues from 2000, the city was still ahead of what

it would have received in hotel-motel revenues.

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