Tentative deal in dome tax fight

• By RICHARD BURGESS
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Nov 3, 2009 - Page: 1BA

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LAFAYETTE — The Cajundome has reached a tentative agreement with the tax collector that will allow beer and liquor sales to continue at the facility.

The Cajundome needs clearance from the local tax collector to renew its alcohol permit, but Lafayette Parish Sales Tax Director Carl Meche had not given the OK because the dome owes $1.4 million in tax debt — money that should have been collected as sales tax from customers but was not.

Provisional clearance for the alcohol permit has now been given in a proposed agreement that could end a festering lawsuit over the tax issue, according to officials with the Cajundome and the Lafayette Parish School Board, which oversees sales tax collections.

“It ought to put the whole thing to bed,” School Board President Carl LaCombe said Monday.

Neither LaCombe nor Cajundome Director Greg Davis would comment on the details of the agreement, which still must be approved by the School Board and the Cajundome Commission.

The provisional clearance for the Cajundome’s alcohol permit could be revoked if both parties do not approve the agreement, Davis said.

Davis said last week that the Cajundome does not have the $1.4 million to pay the tax debt.

That figure would represent a big chunk of the dome’s $5 million annual budget.

Davis declined to say Monday whether the proposed agreement calls for the facility to pay any portion of what is owed.

He commented only that “the whole sales tax matter will be resolved” and that he did not wish to discuss the details until after informing the Cajundome Commission about the proposed agreement.

The Cajundome Commission is scheduled to vote on the agreement behind closed doors Monday.

No date has been set for the School Board to vote on the issue.

The tax collector and the Cajundome have been wrangling since 2007 over whether the facility is required to collect tax from customers on concessions, tickets and other sales.