Financing a sports complex was placed on a tight time frame Monday as a tax hike on hotels, motels and restaurants in Vicksburg and Warren County was revived as a way to pay for a sports complex.

Two of four options the full Board of Mayor and Aldermen and others presented to the Warren County Board of Supervisors during an informal meeting involves persuading the Mississippi Legislature to pass a bill allowing an additional sales tax on room rentals and meal tabs above current rates. One includes only those inside the city, while the other includes all hotels and restaurants countywide. A third option excludes restaurants countywide from that equation and a fourth asks state lawmakers to create a five-member commission to oversee building and managing recreation facilities.

“I didn’t think we should infringe on your taxing authority without your approval,” Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs Jr. told supervisors at the session, also attended by the boards’ respective attorneys and key budget writers.

No decision is expected from the county board until at least their next formal session next Tuesday. Flaggs said financing has been fast-tracked so a request can be sent to lawmakers this year. Deadlines to file bills in regular sessions usually hit by mid-February. The concept resembles a complex string of entertainment tax hikes proposed during former Mayor Paul Winfield’s administration, the last of which didn’t emerge from committee in the Legislature.

In December, Flaggs named seven people to a committee tasked with analyzing a site and design of a sports complex. A second panel is expected to analyze feasibility, financing and marketing. An ad hoc committee wrapped up six months of public meetings and reviews in December by recommending a sports complex be built on 270 acres and feature 12 soccer fields, eight youth baseball fields, eight softball fields, an amphitheater and a meeting center. It would replace fields at Halls Ferry Park and soccer fields at Clear Creek in Bovina that officials for years have termed outdated.

The city’s 200-acre tract off Fisher Ferry Road has been mentioned most prominently as a site since being shelved twice before, though published statements from city officials late last month indicated the search is still wide-open. No specifics were divulged on any privately-owned land that would fit the committee’s criteria.

Last summer, supervisors complained publicly about not being asked to place a representative from the county’s parks and recreation commission on the 15-member ad hoc panel. Flaggs later offered to expand the group by up to five people to give the county a say, but it went unanswered. The fourth option shown Monday, ostensibly a preparatory option in case neither side can agree in principle or in detail on a tax hike, is meant to have two appointees each by the city and county and a fifth by the governor, officials said. Flaggs on Monday asked Board President Bill Lauderdale how he felt about the entire county board or the parks and rec commission being on the two newly-created committees.

“Well, it’s up to them,” Lauderdale said.

A 1 percent tax in place on hotel rooms and restaurant tabs nets about $1.2 million a year for the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, city attorney Nancy Thomas told supervisors, adding theirs and the 2 percent tax on hotels only that goes to the Vicksburg Convention Center formed the basis of Monday’s presentation. VCVB finished fiscal 2014 with $1.15 million from the tax; VCC reported $529,116 last year from the hotel tax.

“So, if you do a 1 percent, you get about $1.2 million,” Thomas said. “If you do 2 percent, you get $2.4 million.”

Big-ticket spending items such as a $17 million capital improvements plan and the unfunded desire to build a new county jail at some point were mentioned Monday. The improvements, coupled with a $46 million cap on what the city can borrow at the moment, have the city limiting itself to just $20 million on financing a sports complex, Flaggs said.

Supervisors and others said it only made sense the county would be asked to partner on a tax hike and essentially co-sign a bond arrangement.

Warren County’s credit rating is Aa2, the second-highest rating category listed by Moody’s Investors Service. The city’s rating was restored last July after being pulled in 2012 after four years worth of audits backed up without completion.

Supervisors perceived the tax talk as a rush to a decision.

“It’s a great idea — we need it,” District 1 Supervisor John Arnold said, adding he continues to favor more private-sector involvement as “the way to go” in a sports complex. “But, you’re talking about at least $5 million to clear land before you ever start … We need to have a plan before we jump off and do something and then say, ‘Woooo! We shouldn’t have done this.’ I think that’s where you are on the Fisher Ferry project.”

Flaggs’ replay was that the city only needs to hear a clear direction from the county when it comes to all aspects of the proposed complex.

“If the Board of Supervisors will tell us what role they want to play, I promise you within two weeks you’d have everything you want in here,” Flaggs said.

City officials talked up the chances retail development would be spun off from the completion of a sports complex, as would the growth of other sports without a home at current facilities, such as volleyball.

“It’s amazing to see if you put it in the right place, business will flock there,” North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield said. “You could have a little strip mall, eateries things like that.”

Lauderdale questioned the need to build a facility solely to attract tournaments such as the Governor’s Cup baseball event and smaller-scale events for soccer and volleyball, to, as he described it, the detriment of “our local people.”

“Why do they need to bring in these tournaments?” he asked.

“That’s how they fund themselves,” said Omar Nelson, an attorney who headed up the ad hoc committee that produced the report recommending a 270-acre site.

About $3 million has been spent preparing the Fisher Ferry site, near St. Michael Catholic Church, for adequacy as a sports complex location since the city bought it in 2003. The expenditures run the gamut from land clearing, drainage improvement, flood plain-related engineering, and dirt work.

Last March, the city put the land up for sale for 90 days, but no takers came forward.