06/24/2009: "$333K Tourist Tax Divvied Out"

How to split up the lodging tax money is always a big question by those who have an opinion on what the priorities should be for awarding it.

The money is collected as part of a tax from those who rent a room in San Juan County. Who gets the money is determined by the county council after they receive a recommendation from the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (LTAC).

Leaving aside the early historical fights over how the money should be spent, the discussion these days is over how much should be spent to promote tourism -which feeds the fund- and how much should be spent on facilities and programs to off-set any negative impacts and needs of tourists.

Some examples are restrooms, and amenities for “off-peak” programs, such as leasing land for a farmers market; promotions and operations of festivals; museums and the like. And then there are all of the other non-profits that see a need for at least some of the money.

In the early days the awarding was purely a political process, but the then county commissioners wisely set up the LTAC as a screening committee to received applications and make recommendations based on a set of priorities and policies consistent with the law.

Tough times for the economy mean less tax money, and this year the LTAC received $441,200.00 of requests from 14 applicants for the 2010 facilities allocation funding of $360,000.00.

The LTAC recommended 9 awards, totaling $333,000.00 -holding out $27,000 as a reserve fund.
During the recent county budget discussions Lopez Councilmember Bob Myhr repeatedly raised questions about the amount of money the County holds back in the county budget as a reserve to pay bills and/or other unexpected expenses, and he did so again with the LTAC recommendations.

When Councilman Howard Rosenfeld made a motion to approve the LTAC recommendations as presented, it at first appeared the motion would sail through, but then Myhr attempted to amend the motion to include $6,000.00 for the Lopez Chamber of Commerce. During the discussion period it became clear Myhr expected the money to come out of the reserve fund.

LTAC spokesman Jim Nelson explained the requested amount from Lopez had not been included or considered by LTAC because the Lopez request had missed the deadline by almost two weeks.

Myhr persisted, but failed to get the votes needed to include the Lopez request. The Rosenfeld motion to approve the LTAC recommendation passed 5 to 1, with Myhr voting “No.”