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Council approves $24,000 for Bluffton Rotary Mayfest and tightens ATAX guidelines on operations
Summary
Council approved $24,000 in accommodation-tax funding for the Bluffton Rotary’s Mayfest event and adopted guideline changes that cap reimbursable operational expenses for civic/cultural facilities and exclude personnel costs from eligible ATAX uses.
Bluffton — The Town Council on March 11 approved the Accommodation Tax Advisory Committee’s recommendation to grant $24,000 to the Bluffton Rotary Club for the Mayfest weekend and adopted amended guidelines clarifying eligible uses for accommodation-tax (ATAX) funds.
Chris Forster presented the committee’s recommendation; the quarter’s only active application was Bluffton Rotary’s Mayfest request for $24,000, which the committee recommended for funding. Council approved the award; one councilmember recused from the vote because of an organizational affiliation.
Separately the ATAC recommended clearer limits on operational support for cultural and civic facilities. The committee proposed two changes to the ATAX application guidelines: 1) explicitly list personnel expenses (salaries and wages) as ineligible tourism-related expenditures; and 2) cap reimbursable operational expenditures for cultural and civic facilities at the lesser of 25% of annual costs or the documented percentage of tourist attendance, with a hard cap of $50,000 per year.
Council debated the policy language and accepted the recommendation unanimously. Committee members said the caps are intended to provide a transparent, equitable approach to limited ATAX dollars and to avoid creating long-term operational dependency while leaving council discretion to consider exceptions.
