Montgomery County News

Corps of Engineers turnback money helps county, MI School February 8, 2007 - Mike Wallace - (Montgomery Co. - Editor)

By Mike Wallace

Additional monies into the Mount Ida School District and the Montgomery County Road Department began February on a happy note for those two entities, but not for resorts on Lake Ouachita.

On Feb. 1, County Treasurer Alvin Black stated to the newspaper that Montgomery County will receive a total of $131,312.05 from the Corp of Engineers in what could be described as turnback monies in lieu of taxes.

Under federal law, counties and school districts who do not receive property tax revenue on land managed by governmental agencies can receive money in lieu of those property taxes.

Treasurer Black said the money is returned to the counties under a flood relief program. Since the land area involved around Lake Ouachita is in the Mount Ida School District, it will receive 80 percent of the total. Black said the 80 percent portion has been received, and the 20 percent which will go into the County Road Department will be sent sometime later in 2007.

Black also stated that money going to Mount Ida has averaged $49,000 per year for the past several payments. That 80 percent check for the 2006 monies will be for $105,049.64.

The reason for the increase is a change in the calculations on what the resort owners have to pay the Corp of Engineers each year for their permits.

In prior years, the rate was a small percentage of the net sales at each location. Net sales would be calculated after all expenses are deducted from the gross sales for services and rentals rendered.
The rate doubled for some of the resort owners and could have tripled for the larger resorts. But the kicker was - the rate was multiplied against gross sales for 2006 and will also be against 2007 and future years.

If the resorts had their seasonal rates fixed and quoted to people making 2006 reservations long in advance of actually arriving here (as many people do), the resorts were unable to pass along the increased costs to the customers without making customers angry.

Since most of the resorts have customers who have returned many times for vacations, that would be an unwise move. The resorts just had to absorb the loss.

The logical and necessary thing to happen is the increase will have to be incorporated into the 2007 rates charged to customers.

The change in rates charged by the Corps to the resorts and the change in calculation on gross sales instead of net sales will hurt some of the business at the vacation locations. It will benefit the school and county road department. But they really had nothing to do with the unexpected increase in funds. The vacationers and local people who use the facilities at the resorts will pay for the Corps of Engineers changing the way the calculations are done.

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