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Lincoln Aldermen discuss
re-directing hotel motel tax to a city tourism department
[April 16, 2025]
At the Tuesday evening meeting of
the Lincoln City Council, aldermen heard from Mayor Tracy Welch a
proposal that would re-direct the hotel/motel tax collected in the
city of Lincoln from the current Logan County Tourism Bureau to a
newly formed City of Lincoln Tourism Department.
Welch began by saying he was in no way criticizing the current
tourism bureau or making any derogatory statement about anyone
involved in that organization.
For clarification, the Logan County Tourism Bureau is a certified
Convention and Visitors Bureau the state tourism department. As such
there is some grant funding that is available to the bureau. Welch’s
proposal would not dissolve the current bureau, but it would impact
the money being paid to it.
Currently the bureau gets all its
funding from the hotel/motel tax from motels within the city limits
of Lincoln. With that funding, it promotes tourism for all the
communities in the county. Other communities in the county that have
revenue from the hotel/motel tax do not pay into the LCTB but rather
are using their funds for the promotion of tourism in their towns.
The Logan County Board also offers no financial support to the
tourism bureau.
Welch told the council that what he wanted to explore was whether or
not the city could offer a better, more efficiently run tourism
department. He spoke about the overhead costs of the current model
saying that the lions share of the money paid to the LCTB was being
invested in salaries, rent and utilities, insurances, and other
overhead costs, with only a small percentage being spent on the
promotion of tourism.
He also spelled out the current financial status of the bureau and
said according to documents he had been provided, the bureau was
operating in the red. Later he would note that those figures could
use further investigations because he didn’t quite understand how
the bureau was operating in the red but still had excess cash on
hand.
Welch would go on to say that he had heard from at least one or two
motels in town who had been disappointed by the amount of assistance
they received in promoting Logan County with their guests. He noted
that one motel had said that they had developed their own tourism
guidebook for guests because the bureau had not done a sufficient
job of providing helpful materials.
Welch said that Scott McCoy is a
consultant that was hired by the LCTB recently for a specific review
regarding a $100,000 grant the bureau had received. Welch has talked
to McCoy about serving as a consultant for the new city department
if it were formed, and McCoy said he could serve the city for
$45,000 a year. Welch said that would be an approximately $70,000
reduction over what the LCTB has been paying staff.
There would be a need for a part-time person with the city, but
Welch said it would be primarily for the payment of bills and that
Administrative Assistant to the Council Ashley Metelko would be able
to take on that responsibility.
Welch said there would also be a matter of the assets or tourist
attractions owned by the bureau. Welch noted the Railsplitter
Covered Wagon and the Mill Museum as two of the large ones, plus
some other small assets. He said it would be best for the LCTB, if
they wish to continue operating separately from the city, if the
city would take over ownership responsibility of those assets.
He also noted that the LCTB currently pays rent for the office space
at the Depot Visitors Center. He said he felt that it would be fair
to offer the bureau that space rent free to assist them in
continuing forward.
Furthermore, Welch said he felt that it would be right to pledge a
dollar amount to the LCTB from the city, but that he would be in
favor of doing so only if the county were willing to contribute.
He said that the funds distributed by the LCTB was for the entire
county and it seemed right that the county should help with the
support.
As discussion went on, Alderman Kevin Bateman said he had served on
the board of the LCTB, and he was aware that it was city money that
was being spent in various locations throughout the county. He had
long wondered why the city should be doing this, and was in favor of
a city-run department.
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There was talk
about the tourism bureau’s support of local festivals, and
Bateman said that the LCTB did not support the Balloons Over 66.
He said in fact the Up in Smoke pays the LCTB for its share of
the advertising the bureau does for the event.
It was mentioned that the bureau was
giving money to the Balloons Over 66, but that is not the fact. The
bureau is responsible for the accountability of money given to the
balloon portion of the festival from ARPA funding because the
balloon portion is not a 501C3 not for profit organization and the
bureau is. Money had also been shuffled through the tourism bureau
to other entities such as the Railsplitter festival, but because
that entity is a 501C3 it handles its own funds and accountability.
Bateman had suggested that there be a motion put on next Monday
(April 21st) nights voting agenda to re-direct the funding to the
city. Alderman Sam Downs who serves along with Parrott as a city
representative on the LCTB asked if the discussion could be tabled
to another committee of the whole meeting so he could speak with the
rest of the bureau board. Welch said his primary concern about the
delay is that due to the recent resignation of the LCTB director,
the board is currently advertising for a replacement. He said he
felt it would be unfair to the LCTB board to let them hire someone
then discover that the funding was going to change dramatically.
It was also brought up though that if
the LCTB is to remain an entity for the county, they are required to
have a full-time Chief Executive Officer, so more than likely
someone is going to need to be hired regardless of what the city
does.
There was a question about the current funding agreement with the
bureau. When did it end and would the city see it through to the end
of the contract. Welch said that it would take time to make the
transition, but he felt that it would be good to alter the funding
sooner rather than later.
It was noted that the 100th anniversary of Route 66 is next year,
and currently the city of Lincoln is way behind in preparing for
that event. The city would need to have money in hand and start
working on promoting Lincoln as a stop on the route during that
anniversary year.
City Clerk Peggy Bateman was asked about the term of the agreement
and any escape clause. She said that the term is the calendar year
so the contract would end on December 31st, but there is also a
clause for a 30 day notice for early termination.
The council also talked about the state grants that the bureau
receives. Those grants are given to certified Convention and Visitor
Bureau’s which the LCTB is currently. They retain that designation
via the Logan County Board and could continue on with that
designation separate from the city if they choose. Welch said that
the grant requires local match and the proposal of paying some money
into the bureau from the city as well as money from the county would
meet that requirement.
Welch said that would probably cover
the subgrants that are given to entities throughout the county.
However, Molly Pickering, the newly elected president of the LCTB
board said that the state grant could not be used in that way. So
the bureau would still have to come up with money for those
subgrants beyond the state grant.
At the end of the discussion, Downs still wanted the time to discuss
this topic with the bureau board, but Welch said that such a
discussion would not alter the decision of the council.
Welch then asked that the council agree to place an item on the
Monday voting agenda that would be authorization to move forward
with working out the details of forming a city-run tourism
department with city hotel/motel tax revenues.
There were no objections.
[Nila Smith]
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