There are one million reasons Montgomery County residents -- especially citizens of Blacksburg and Christiansburg -- should be paying attention to local tourism funding.
That's about 1% of all "lodging taxes" collected since a regional tourism development initiative was launched in 2005.
Right now, representatives from all three funding sources are digesting their breakfast. Tourism discussions were on the menu today during a liaison meeting.
Each locality is about to adopt a budget for fiscal year 2010-2011. Shouldn't business partners who anticipated increased tourism spending and residents who expected to see service levels enhanced or expanded have a clear understanding of where this money went?
Part of the former Tourism Development Council's (TDC) initial mission was public education. Taxpayers expect to be provided with specifics of how public monies have been spent.
Regular readers know members of the Christiansburg Council didn't care for the former chamber president, and realizing the town's contributions exceeded other partners didn't sit well. So in 2008 Christiansburg capped their allocation, to basically equal those from the other 'burg. Until the three or four proposed new hotels are built at certain interstate exits, Montgomery County supervisors will continue to chip in less than $1000 annually.
Nearly a year ago, the Roanoke Times jumped into the fray -- reporting on an alleged scandal involving the chamber of commerce (which administered the tourism funds and initiatives). All public funding was immediately stopped. This was followed up by the announcement of the chamber hiring a new president which then dismissed their tourism person, and the hiring of that person to head a new visitors and convention bureau.
Somewhere in between all this, charges were filed against the former chamber president (an initial court appearance was scheduled for March 12, but no additional news has been reported on that issue).
What is central to this is how the chamber managed its funds, including approximately $850,000 in tourism taxes. Within the current budget process for each locality is a cumulative "escrow" amount of roughly $200,000 in lodging taxes. Plus an equal amount from the 2010-2011 budgets, and then going forward, one easily sees an annual "regional tourism" budget of at least $200,000 every year. How will these taxes be used?
From January 2009 through today's date, the TDC met 12 times. While lodging partners and government representatives on this board have changed throughout, chamber representation was a constant.
Of these 12 meetings, Christiansburg representatives missed only two meetings. The county missed four and Blacksubrg missed seven. The TDC's chairman and treasurer together missed 10 meetings (one of whom has now resigned due to personal obligations).
The chamber's chairman never attended the meetings "pre-scandal" yet has been present at each one since last August (if you headed an organization that was losing what approached 50% of your cumulative budget, you'd want to be in the room, too).
Until the funding governments have a plan and a viable entity to turn the funds over to via a contract, not much will happen beyond the lodging taxes being collected and held. It has now been another 90 days since a new path was reported, yet Christiansburg's liaison is himself asking questions about what is going on. To rebuild trust and move forward requires an accounting from day one for all lodging taxes collected. Does this synch up with what was disbursed, factoring in amounts which should now be sitting in an escrow account? How does all this balance in the chamber's and TDC accounting records?
Know, too, it appears anyone can spend about $200 and file articles of incorporation with the State Corporation Commission -- establishing a new entity, such as the New River Valley Visitors and Convention Bureau. Then simply file the paperwork with the IRS seeking non-profit status. If you had access to chamber funds, you could even use their money to do this -- and once you reimburse them, claim the new entity as your own. This is supposedly the approach the chief administrators of both towns and the county were looking at once it became clear the TDC had no funds remaining. Today's breakfast may have put more subtance (details, information) behind new plans, which requires tourism is completely divorced from the local chamber.
A full accounting of occupancy taxes collected since July 2005 needs to be made public. This should include amounts actually paid to the chamber and/or former TDC. Then public disclosure of how those funds were spent should be made.
Only then will lessons learned be clear, along with the path for resuming this initiative and rebuilding public trust. If this can be mended. This would include clearly articulated goals and objectives, then determining who to contract with for services. That person, that entity, will be responsible for leveraging around $200,000 a year on behalf of all Montgomery County tax payers -- even more money if tourism rebounds or grows -- not just this or that town.
This should have always been the plan -- acting on behalf of area businesses which could expect to benefit from more travelers visiting Montgomery County, and for citizens who would like to see other revenue sources keep local taxes as low as possible.
What did happen, where we go from here -- should be made clear to voters, today.