Twelve of the 17 cities tracked by Arkansas Business reported increased revenue from taxes on lodging and prepared foods in 2023.
Two cities reported double-digit increases in receipts from their Advertising & Promotion Commission taxes, Rogers (12.4%) and Little Rock (10%), without increasing their tax rates.
Last year’s biggest increase in tax receipts, however, was reported by Jonesboro. Its 14.4% increase was helped along by the fact that the new 2% restaurant tax and an increased hotel tax were received for only 11 months in 2022, according to Craig Rickert, who was named the first executive director of Jonesboro’s A&P Commission in October.
Using data from Smith Travel Resources, Jonesboro announced that its hotels generated more than $39 million in revenue last year. “Inventory rose over 9%,” Rickert said in a release. “We added two hotels in Jonesboro in 2023. Two more are under construction, so we expect those revenues to rise again in 2024.”
Jonesboro will be in the path of totality during the eclipse on April 8.
A&P taxes go by a variety of names — hotel-motel-restaurant taxes, HMR taxes, “hamburger taxes” — and are local-option taxes that function like sales taxes on lodging and prepared foods. The receipts must be used for specific purposes. Those include promoting the city and operating convention centers or other city-owned attractions. The tax rate is generally limited to 3%, but larger cities with large parks can levy up to 4%.
Lowell has disappeared from the A&P tax collections list after discontinuing its tax in September 2022, just four years after first levying a tax on restaurant and hotel receipts. Arkansas Business added Harrison to the survey this year.
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