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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