Highland looks to application process for future tourism, chamber funding
Disagreements over how tourism dollars are being spent in Highland continues.
Earlier this month during a budgetary meeting, Mayor Joe Michaelis delivered a rebuke over the years of funding the city had been awarding without specifics. He said specifically the city’s annual $24,000 funding of the Chamber of Commerce’s events and other projects were prime examples of the problem.
He and the city’s attorney, Michael McGinley, agreed the funding also was against state statute 20 ILCS 605/605-705 that requires Hotel/Motel Tax Funding Program funds be spent on things that benefit tourism.
In response, City Manager Mark Latham announced a new application process for organizations or individuals seeking funds from Highland’s Hotel/Motel Tax Funding Program at a recent Highland City Council meeting
In the past, requesting funds from the Hotel/Motel funds only required a written and in-person request of the City Council, which would then vote on the funding.
The process begins with an application that asks organizations to list the details of the event, why funds are needed and how the event will help promote tourism, conventions and overnight visitors to the city.
It also asks the organization list the projected attendance of the event and how many overnight visitors are expected.
For requests less than $1,500, a one page sheet with basic questions is required. However, for requests more than $1,500 a four-page, 30 question form is required that covers specific expenses, other sources of funding, sponsors for the event and more.
That application would then go to a committee made up of Latham, McGinley and Director of Finance Kelly Korte. Upon approval, the application would be presented to the City Council for final approval.
Michaelis said the application process makes the process more transparent and gives the city a better idea of how the funds will be spent toward tourism.
“Somewhere or another this got past us and we have just been indiscriminately giving out $24,000 a year,” Michaelis said at the early March meeting. “So when you’re looking at this I would strongly suggest that there be no money budgeted under this item and that they, like anyone else, approach the podium and have a very detailed outline of where every bit of the monies are going to.”
Every year for decades Highland’s Chamber of Commerce has requested funds for different tourism-related projects and aspects of its operations.
The funds requested would have covered employee time spent fielding tourism requests, annual membership with the Tourism Bureau of Southern Illinois, advertisements in several publications, acting as the city’s visitor center and the city’s tourism website and several events.
Those events include the annual Lighted Christmas Parade and Street Art Festival. City money also helps pay for wages, a website and more. In total, the chamber requests roughly $24,000 annually.
The chamber has yet to comment on the changes to the process, but in its annual request noted the work done by the chamber brings in an abundance of tourism and therefore should be eligible for the funding.
Michaelis disagreed at the early March meeting. He said while chamber events do bring tourists to Highland, he didn’t see how things like the upkeep of the chamber office and its website promote tourism.
This story was originally published March 21, 2019 at 10:51 AM.