Tag Archives: EdVenture

City lobbyists are safe, but arts groups are not

By adam beam | Published: August 26, 2009
Columbia City Council members did not discuss contracts for the city’s three state lobbyists today because they spent three hours talking to arts groups about hospitality tax funding. I can summarize the conversation in two sentences: ARTS GROUPS: Please give us more money. CITY COUNCIL: No. Hospitality taxes, in case you don’t know, are the 2-cents-on-the-dollar tax you [...]
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Decoding the City Council agenda

By adam beam | Published: June 23, 2009
Columbia City Council meets tomorrow at 9 a.m., and they have a lot on the agenda: 1. Ordinance No. 2009-030. This approves the 2009-10 budget. It is a formality. Council members have to approve the budget twice for it to go into effect. They approved it once last week. Because of that, council members cannot amend the [...]
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Columbia's 'big 4' arts groups are struggling

By adam beam | Published: June 9, 2009
Every time you eat in a Columbia restaurant, you pay a 2 cents on the dollar tax to support tourism and hospitality organizations. Columbia’s restaurants collected more than $7 million in hospitality taxes last year. But the organizations that receive this money are hurting because of the economy. While close to 80 local arts groups [...]
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Coble wants to borrow money to save bus system

By adam beam | Published: February 3, 2009
Columbia Mayor Bob Coble wants the city to borrow $2 million to fulfill its obligation as part of a deal struck with Richland County last month to keep the bus system from shutting down. Coble wants to borrow the money against the value of the bus barn property, which is vacant property on Gervais Street in [...]
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Police, Columbia Canal and a speed hump

By adam beam | Published: February 3, 2009
Wednesday, Columbia City Council members will finally hear the second part of Police Chief Tandy Carter’s comprehensive plan to cut Columbia’s crime in half in five years. (You can read about the first phase here). Carter was supposed to deliver his report last week, but was derailed by a mob of angry landlords who stormed City [...]
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