The Little Rock Advertising and Promotion Commission will meet Wednesday morning to begin the process of searching for a new director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau and to approve a proposed settlement with Kroger over the grocery chain’s failure to pay the restaurant sales tax on prepared food sales from its in-store delis.
The commission had filed claims for a total of $119,187 for sales taxes Kroger owed 2007-2010. The settlement agreement provides for a Kroger payment of $82,000. It says Kroger contested the administrative procedure followed by the city agency in making a claim for unpaid taxes and that the settlement would avoid litigation.
Kroger now pays the 2-cent hamburger tax on deli sales and, while the settlement admits no wrongdoing on past actions, will continue to do so going forward, a bureau spokesman said. The Kroger shortage was discovered and reported some months ago.