By Sam Parsons

The Knoxville city council met last night and discussed their local option sales and services tax (LOSST) as well as their hotel/motel tax.

For the LOSST, a target of $1.3 million in revenue was set with expenditures set to total roughly $1.28 million. Two options were discussed for the hotel/motel tax; both proposals would use revenues to support downtown vitality efforts as well as communication and marketing efforts, but option 1 would use remaining dollars for economic development and tourism support through the chamber, whereas option 2 would use those dollars directly to fund the hire of a new chamber director. Option 2 was chosen with the council citing the city’s struggle to find a new chamber director.

The council also received a presentation from Knoxville Fire and EMS on their proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Proposed expenditures total a 17.83% increase over last year, largely due to the addition of 3 part-time positions and equipment purchases.

The Knoxville City Council will hold their next regular meeting on February 6.