Council member suggests a new group solely to promote tourism
The Jefferson city council at its Dec. 9 meeting had discussion with Ben Yoder, president of the Greene County Chamber of Commerce, about use of the hotel/motel tax for the new Welcome Center at the southeast corner of the courthouse square. No action was taken, as the council preferred to wait until all members were present; Shannon Black was absent from Tuesday’s meeting.
The 7 percent hotel/motel tax was approved by Jefferson voters in 2001. The ballot language specified that at least 80 percent of the revenue be paid to the Chamber for the “promotion and encouragement of tourism and convention business in the city and surrounding areas.” The remaining funds are directed to the Jefferson park and recreation department.
Total revenue from the tax in the past has been about $36,000 a year. However, officials with BriMark Inc project that its Cobblestone Inn adjacent to Wild Rose Jefferson will add another $65,000 in hotel/motel tax revenue per year.
The Chamber has in the past used its share of the tax for advertising, publications like the tourism guide, website development, and wages associated with those efforts.
The new items Yoder and the Chamber board hope to see funded by hotel/motel revenue are the payment of principal and interest on work done at the Welcome Center, and insurance on the building. The exterior work is complete at a cost of $85,000. The Chamber will soon begin a public fundraising effort with a goal of $175,000 to finish the interior.
Yoder met with the council to verify that principle and interest on a bank loan for remodeling could be paid with hotel/motel tax revenue pending the outcome of fundraising. That would allow the Chamber to move forward with the project and have it completed next summer. Without the assurance that payments can be made, no further work can be done on the Welcome Center until the money is in hand, delaying the project.
Yoder presented a draft budget that includes wages for two fulltime employees at the Welcome Center and other items that have previously been paid with hotel/motel tax revenue. The draft budget includes payments on a loan and insurance as well.
He also made a case for the Welcome Center, which will include public restrooms and space to showcase Jefferson and Greene County’s tourism assets.
The proposal was not warmly received by the council. Yoder had previously met individually with council members, briefing them on the proposed budget. Council member Lisa Jaskey chided Yoder for sharing at a public meeting what had been said privately. “We asked you not to go through that whole presentation, because we already all heard it, and now you’ve spent 35 minutes talking… We’ve heard all that stuff before. I don’t think it’s anything new,” Jaskey said.
“I recognize your passion for tourism. I share that passion. I think tourism is extremely important to our economy, to our economic development in terms of attracting new people to town,” she said. She noted the important tourism assets the county has that other counties do not.
“If tourism is as important to you as you’re saying it is, would the Chamber be willing to split tourism off, to be a separate 501(c)3 entity that its sole purpose was the promotion of tourism and a visitor center and managing that facility? Personally, I would have an easier time allocating the hotel/motel tax to an organization, a stand alone organization, that strictly does tourism, because that’s what the hotel/motel tax is supposed to be for. That would create a lot of transparency and there would be no question that the money was going to that bureau,” Jaskey said.
Jaskey later asked city clerk Diane Kennedy if the council were to okay principal and interest payment, if the payment could go directly to the bank rather than going through the Chamber. She also said that because the Chamber promotes tourism assets outside the city of Jefferson, the county should be providing financial support.
Yoder said there could be future discussion about such a bureau in the future. He also said that talking with the county would be a “wise approach,” but that the county would first want to see support for the Welcome Center from the city.
“I’m not against this, but I don’t know that I’m for it, either,” council member Gary Von Ahsen said about the proposed budget. He suggested forming an independent task force to research how Welcome Centers have functioned in other towns of similar size.
Jaskey and Von Ahsen both said they would at a future meeting consider approval of the loan payments to allow construction to proceed. The council does not meet again until Jan. 13.
