Committee reviews 2023 occupancy-tax spending; staff outlines distribution, major recipients and one-time events

Warren County staff on Feb. 27 presented a detailed analysis of 2023 spending of the county’s occupancy-tax allocations, telling the Occupancy Tax Coordination Committee that roughly $10 million was spent under the 2023 allocations and that municipalities, marketing and events captured the bulk of those dollars.

Heather, a county staff member who led the presentation, said the spend analysis covers projects paid in calendar year 2023. “We spent over $10,000,000 in 2023,” she said, and the report breaks down where those dollars went by municipality, budget line and category. She said the Village of Lake George, Warren County as a whole and Queensbury received a majority of municipal and promotional funds.

The presentation said municipalities receive 25% of annual occupancy-tax receivables by resolution; municipal payments are distributed in two installments, the first disbursement in October and the remainder in May after books close in March. Heather described line items and budget authorizations: tourism special-events funding ($740,000, excluding a one-time event in the county’s accounting that would skew comparisons), the tourism department marketing allocation ($2,100,000 in 2023), and a Warren County projects line ($430,000) that funds items such as sheriff’s office support at the balloon festival, DPW overtime and Lake George TV support.

Heather told the committee that Civic Center capital costs appeared as a $350,000 line in 2023, which included a one-time $250,000 Heritage Hall renovation payment; going forward the county’s contribution for that capital-cost program is $100,000 per year under the current contract. Another annual $250,000 line funds promotion and solicitation of events for the Adirondack Civic Center through the Adirondack Civic Center Coalition.

Environmental projects received an authorized $125,000 split among three towns (Horicon, Lake Luzerne and Chester) to fight aquatic invasive species; Heather said Queensbury may also receive funding under a different budget line and that staff would verify that allocation. Municipal application funding — a separate budget line for municipalities to apply for projects — awarded $43,533 in 2023 to Horicon, Queensbury and North Warren (Tri-Lake Alliance), staff said.

Heather also highlighted how one large event, the county’s Winter’s Dream, affected totals. She said that if Winter’s Dream were excluded the report would show approximately $6 million to $7 million in the towns that typically capture the most tourism dollars; the presentation later noted Winter’s Dream payments in 2023 totaled $2,800,000.

Treasurer Christine Naughton followed with a revenue update. She said the county’s total collections (hotels, motels, resorts and short-term rentals) were about $7.7 million as of one interim date shown, and staff provided an updated figure that the county was at $7.8 million as of Feb. 26, 2025. Naughton said hotels and motels make up about 80% of collections and were relatively flat year over year at roughly $6.1 million; short-term rentals made up the remainder and were up roughly 18%, an increase she said was about $250,000 year over year. She said part of the growth reflected enforcement efforts that recovered past-due receivables and that $150,000 of the year-to-date increase was attributable to those collections.

Supervisors asked for clarifications about chart details, municipal distribution calculations and whether particular parks- or board-funded items appear in the occupancy-tax report; staff said they would follow up on items not listed in the packet visuals. Several supervisors also asked about the county’s payment schedule to municipalities and about the origin and history of environmental project allocations; Heather said the environmental line dated to the early-to-mid 2000s and that staff would verify exact origins and related payments.

Supervisor questions about the Winter’s Dream project prompted staff to say they would follow up with the board on any updates; a supervisor also asked staff to check whether the Lake George Park Commission and some county line items were correctly reflected in the 2023 report.

The presentation concluded and committee members moved on to a separate agenda item highlighting LakeGeorge.tv’s second-year performance metrics.