Food and beverage tax bill for Hobart, Merrillville won’t get a Indiana House hearing but leaders still remain hopeful

Karen Caffarini, Freelance Reporter, (Merrillville) Post-Tribune

Thursday, February 11, 2021 5:55 PM

Proposed legislation that would allow Hobart and Merrillville to impose a 1% food and beverage tax appears to be dead for this session, with the bill unable to even get a hearing.

Still, leaders for both communities remain hopeful.

The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Julie Olthoff, R-Merrillville, said the chair of the House Ways and Means committee, Dr. Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville, told her he wouldn’t hear the proposal after Sen. Travis Holdman, R-Markle, informed him the Senate wouldn’t be hearing any food and beverage tax requests in this session.

“It would have been hard getting the bill through the Senate,” Olthoff said. “A lot of the representatives said they were going to focus on the priorities, such as the budget.”

Hobart Mayor Brian Snedecor doesn’t believe the bill is totally dead, however.

Merrillville Councilman Richard Hardaway, D-2nd, also expressed hope.

“I’ll hold out hope that there will be an eleventh hour action that saves us,” Hardaway said.

The original bill called for a 1% food and beverage tax for Hobart only. The city hopes to use the money generated from the tax to build a sports complex to be located off U.S. 30, a project city leaders believe will stimulate economic development along the retail corridor.

Olthoff said she was going to add two amendments to the bill, one of which would add Merrillville’s 1% tax and the other would have Hobart’s tax not go into effect until January 2022, as requested by Snedecor and the Hobart Chamber of Commerce.

Merrillville’s primary use for the tax money would be to help build a convention center, which the town also sees as an economic development driver along the U.S. 30-Interstate 65 corridor.

Richard Dube, of Tri-Land Development, has proposed transforming the former Burlington Coat Factory building at the Century Mall property at U.S. 30 and Broadway into a convention center, with hotels and restaurants added to the property.

Merrillville Councilman Shawn Pettit, D-6th, said he doesn’t think the state’s inaction during this session will hurt the proposed convention center’s progress.

“We need to sit down with Mr. Dube and see where he’s at,” Pettit said. “We’ll try again next year.”

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