By EDWARD HUSAR
Herald-Whig Staff Writer
A representative from Country Inn and Suites delivered a check for $80,410 to Quincy City Hall after normal business hours Thursday claiming the payment covers all back taxes and penalties due for 2008.
However, City Attorney Anthony B. Cameron said the arrival of this non-certified check may not have any bearing on the license-revocation decision pending before Mayor John Spring. Spring is expected to rule Monday on whether the hotel's license should be revoked or suspended for non-payment of its hotel-motel taxes for eight months in 2008.
"It is difficult to see how this possible payment can have any bearing on the administrative proceeding before the mayor. The evidence has been concluded in that case," Cameron said.
"Nothing changes for us until we see if this is a bona fide payment."
Testimony at a license-revocation hearing on May 27 showed Quincy Hotel LLC, the corporation doing business as Country Inn and Suites, failed to turn over to the city $87,496 in hotel-motel taxes owed for the period April through November of 2008. Evidence also showed the company owed the city $4,374 in penalties along with an undetermined amount of interest.
This would put the hotel's total liability for 2008 at $91,870, not counting interest.
The $80,410 check that was delivered Thursday to City Treasurer Peggy Crim "is not certified value and is not for an amount we can relate to this operator's total liability," Cameron said. "We are taking all appropriate steps to determine whether this check will be honored by its issuing depository."
Crim confirmed that a non-certified check was delivered to her office shortly after City Hall closed at 4:30 p.m. Thursday. The Country Inn and Suites representative also dropped off a series of amended hotel-motel tax returns for 2008.
"I have not had a chance to certify the amounts on those returns to compare what their actual tax liability is," Crim said.
During the license-revocation hearing at City Hall last week, Mike Hill, managing member of Quincy Hotel LLC, testified that a bookkeeping system used by the hotel miscalculated the hotel's gross revenue, on which the 8 percent hotel-motel tax is based. Hill claimed this bookkeeping system incorrectly added in the amount of taxes owed, thereby overstating the hotel's overall liability.
Hill testified the hotel's books were being audited, and he planned to submit amended hotel-motel tax returns for each month of 2008.
Hill could not be reached this morning for comment.
In addition to petitioning for the revocation of the hotel's license for non-payment of its hotel-motel taxes, Cameron filed suit last month in Adams County Circuit Court seeking fines and penalties in excess of $156,000 from Country Inn and Suites.
The lawsuit specifically relates to $10,890 in hotel-motel taxes the hotel collected in May 2008 and which it should have turned over to the city treasurer by June 30, 2008, but didn't.
The City Code provides a minimum penalty of $500 per offense and $500 for each day the violation continues. The suit asks the court to assess a per-diem fine of not less than $156,000 based on non-payment for at least 312 days. The city also is requesting the court to order the hotel to pay the taxes owed for May 2008 along with interest, which totals 2 percent a month.
Cameron said that while the check delivered Thursday may have no bearing on the license-revocation matter pending before the mayor, "it could have the effect of capping the fines in the ordinance violation court case at something around 340 days."
-- ehusar@whig.com/221-3378
