Committee recommends $14,431 in tourism grants; staff warns of lower TLT revenue and 70% tourist-use guideline

The Fort Loma Finance and Administrative Committee on Sept. 15 recommended the City Council award $14,431 in tourism grants to five local organizations, while staff and committee members discussed a shortfall in transient lodging tax (TLT) revenue and the need to prioritize applications that attract visitors from beyond the immediate area. The committee’s recommended awards, which the motion read into the record, are: Benton County Historical Society $3,431; Bountiful Backyard $3,000; Philomath Area Chamber of Commerce $2,500; Philomath Frolic and Rodeo $4,500; and Philomath Scout Lodge $1,000, for a total of $14,431 from account 1085653. Committee members approved the recommendation by voice vote and will forward it to City Council for final action. Staff told the committee the city collected less TLT revenue than projected when the budget was prepared and that the shortfall is primarily due to lower state-collected and lodging-related receipts. City staff noted that roughly half the lodging tax receipts are set aside for tourism grants while the other half is retained by the city for direct tourism projects. The city manager reminded the committee that state and tourism practice commonly consider visitors from beyond a 50-mile radius as tourist-related for grant purposes and that a local policy requires a majority of TLT dollars to be spent on tourist-related activities. Committee members discussed eligibility questions and whether organizations that applied to both the social-service and tourism grant pots should be removed from one list if funded from the other. The committee debated the Philomath Scout Lodge application for a veterans memorial, with members noting the city recently completed a separate public veterans memorial and discussing duplication of public memorials versus smaller privately hosted memorials. Staff explained the scout lodge’s memorial is on private property and serves a slightly different function than the public memorial. Members asked staff to update future grant applications to request clearer estimates of how many event attendees are from outside the immediate area and to invite awarded grantees to give brief updates to council in the months after funding to improve accountability and outcomes reporting.