NC GAZETTE / WBRT RADIO
STAFF REPORT
Thursday, April 2, 2015, 9 a.m. — Both local distilleries voiced their approval Wednesday morning of Mayor John Royalty’s announcement that plans to annex local whiskey warehouses was off the table.
Through a press release Tuesday, Royalty announced that he will formally request the city council’s Annexation Committee withdraw its recommendation to move forward with a study of annexation plans that would have included the Heaven Hill Brands warehouse complex on Loretto and Gilkey Run Roads. The request will come forward at the council’s 5 p.m. working session set for Monday.
In a joint statement to media issued Wednesday morning, Heaven Hill Brands and Sazerac stated they “are pleased to learn of Bardstown Mayor Royalty’s recommendation that the proposal currently before the town’s Annexation Committee to annex the warehouses of Bardstown-based distillers be withdrawn.”
The statement noted that the local Bourbon industry already pays more than $3 million dollars per year in taxes to Bardstown and Nelson County, “a figure which has grown significantly over the past 5 years due to increased inventories and expansion.”
The statement noted that annexation would impose additional occupational taxes on industry employees. The offices and bottling houses of both companies are already in the Bardstown city limits.
According to the press release, Bourbon tourism was the top reason tourists visit Bardstown and make up 68 percent of the city’s total attraction attendance, “which translates to roughly $35 million in direct economic impact.”
“Given the recognition and financial incentives now being offered to the Bourbon industry by entities ranging from the Commonwealth of Kentucky to larger cities such as Louisville and Lexington, all of whom recognize the current value and potential future growth that the industry represents, it is gratifying to see the self-proclaimed “Bourbon Capital of the World” working to further that position instead of denigrating it,” the release stated.
“We look forward to working with the mayor and city council on ways to maximize the value and positive impact that the Bourbon industry has on Bardstown, and to foster an atmosphere of cooperation by removing constraints to further growth. The annexation threat was one such major constraint, and we applaud the mayor for his leadership in recommending that it be taken off the table.”
In Royalty’s statement Tuesday, he noted that “the tax burden of being annexed into the city would threaten the economic viability of their businesses to remain in this area … There is no desire on the part of the city to change or damage that relationship.”
The City of Bardstown has not actively pursued annexing the Heaven Hill and Bardstown warehouses in the past. Previous city officials have referred to an informal “gentlemen’s agreement” between the City of Bardstown and the distilleries in which the city agreed to not annex their warehouses.
Jim Beam Brands’ warehouses off Withrow Court are also outside the city limits. The city agreed not to annex those warehouses in exchange for some needed right-of-way on the property several years ago.
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