Higher sales taxes at hotels, restaurants and bars in Vicksburg to fund another attempt at a new sports complex were part of talks Wednesday over what the upcoming legislative session has in store for Vicksburg and Warren County.

Mayor Paul Winfield pitched a plan to raise to 2 percent the sales tax on hotels and motels and 1.5 percent on restaurant and bar tabs to finance more sports facilities as one of “the hottest projects” the city has on its plate heading into next year. The current sales tax of 1 percent on both funds tourism promotion.

“We know it’s feasible, we’ve done enough studies,” Winfield said of the latest push to build a sports complex to essentially replace Halls Ferry Park.

Winfield said the taxes amount to “luxury taxes” that “would pay for themselves” because property taxes aren’t part of the plan and, echoing past attempts to modernize youth sports facilities that would lure more tourist traffic.

“It’s going to increase our hotel stays that much more, our restaurants are going to benefit and our kids and our community will benefit,” he said.

A local option referendum would be called if such a bill passed. Tax proposals geared to tourism are usually filed in the House Local and Private Legislation Committee. Rate hikes passed last year for the cities of Brandon and Southaven and in Washington County, where a 2 percent hotel/motel tax to fund a sports complex for youth passed with nearly 71 percent of the vote Nov. 8.

In 2008, efforts to build a $25 million complex of new baseball fields, indoor soccer fields and lodging areas on 66 acres over the existing Halls Ferry Park were derailed by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality when the agency said it was too risky to disturb soil atop a former city landfill. A chase for $250,000 to be refunded the city by Jacksonville, Fla.-based USA Sports Alliance continues in circuit court. Earlier this year, the city essentially gave up trying to develop about 200 acres off Fisher Ferry Road for softball fields when it offered the land to the county to build a new jail.

State Rep. Alex Monsour, R-Vicksburg, the lone legislator present for Wednesday’s lunch — which Winfield said he paid for and catered by convention center caterer Palmertree Catering — said after the meeting he supported the idea in principle though the size of the hike isn’t set in stone. State Rep. George Flaggs skipped the meeting due to a scheduling conflict. State Sen. Briggs Hopson III was out of town and asked to meet again next month.

In October, the city hired Vicksburg-based Bottin Consulting Group to appraise a site for another complex. Winfield indicated the acreage is privately owned but didn’t specify the size or location. He said a committee of “sports-minded persons” would be put together at some point.

Combining Vicksburg’s recreation department with Warren County’s gained traction at least in talking points, mainly from District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon, one of four supervisors present, including District 1 Supervisor-elect John Arnold and outgoing supervisor David McDonald. Board President Richard George was in Jackson to meet with MDEQ over new regs on silt control inspections and did not attend.

The other item on Winfield’s “hottest” list was the city’s “performance contracting” initiative and planned improvements to water meters through a contract with Siemens Inc. of Flowood. The energy grant-funded work will be reimbursed by the Mississippi Development Authority.

On other topics, Monsour said his support for fewer school districts in Mississippi will continue. The state has 152 districts, with some counties having as many as six.

“It’s ridiculous,” he said. “And I get up and ask the chairman of Education why we can’t do something about that. And they say, ‘It’s a local deal.’”

Privatizing a new jail came up in passing, as has been the case in 13 months of intermittent meetings between local government and school officials, usually over breakfast. Trends in private jails tend to favor “x number” of beds guaranteed, Monsour said. Eight offers of land for a jail have gone untouched since supervisors accepted them in May.

State Sen. Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, is a top choice of state House Republicans to be the next speaker. The GOP will control the chamber for the first time since Reconstruction. Gunn’s district includes parts of northeast Warren County. The takeover clinched in the November elections represented “big changes” in the way the majority will view state agencies’ funding next year, Monsour said.

Vicksburg Warren School District superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Duran Swinford told officials she planned to release, then rehire a Vicksburg Intermediate School math teacher as a tutor after the teacher failed to pass a writing portion of the Praxis test required for certification. That and the replacement of an uncertified teacher at Warren Central Junior High caused the district to slip a category in the state’s 2011 Children First annual rating of school systems.

School trustees Zelmarine Murphy, Joe Loviza and Jim Stirgus Jr. attended the session. Murphy, the board chairman, said what the system needs most is positive vibes.

“I encourage you and your constituents to visit our schools,” Murphy said. “We don’t stage-teach. Many persons who you represent do not have children in the school district. So, they have to listen at the Warren County grapevine, if you will allow me, please. And sometimes, it’s not extremely accurate. There’s a lot of positive things going on. I encourage you to encourage your friends to stop speaking negative about the Vicksburg-Warren schools. I am a public school militant!”