He said city finance officials later changed their position. “We’ve been in an appeals process with the city for two years, and we settled it two months ago,” he said.

Johnson produced correspondence exchanged in May with the city’s chief of finance, Lenora Reid, showing the city and Johnson had agreed to a payment plan to resolve the issue. Reid confirmed Thursday that Johnson contacted her roughly three months ago in an effort to resolve the situation, but that a payment plan has not yet been established.

Dalal said that does not explain “a substantial amount of time during which they should have paid and they did not pay.” He added that “whether they are working to resolve it or not, the issue has not been resolved. It has not been resolved for five years.”

Ron Stallings, the Jackson Ward developer who owns and operates the Hippodrome, also challenged the report’s findings, which he said he was not aware of before being contacted by a reporter.

He said the venue does not produce any shows and that it’s the responsibility of those who rent the venue and sell tickets to the shows to collect and remit the tax.

“We are not promoters,” he said. “We do not sell tickets.”