Austin staff outlines Live Music Fund collections and grant rollout; ACME launches community engagement

City staff updated the Austin Music Commission on hotel-occupancy tax collections, the status of Austin Live Music Fund grants and the office’s plan to finalize grant guidelines next month.

Erica Shamley, Music and Entertainment Division manager, said January collections with encumbrances reached $809,445 and February collections included an additional $306,607. Shamley said collections “have no guarantee of when they roll in—it’s when the hotels send them to the city,” and characterized February as “pretty on par with where we were last year.”

Shamley also gave a detailed accounting of the Austin Live Music Fund rollout: 136 total grant agreements were awarded, with one remaining to be signed; two orientations and four outstanding financial-information forms remain; first payments have been made to 132 awardees; 57 second payments have been made so far; and 13 awards are fully paid and complete. She said some numbers had shifted in the week before the meeting and staff would share updated figures at the May meeting.

Candace Cooper, interim chief administrative officer for ACME (Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment), told the commission the office is building “a robust community engagement plan” that will review five years of public input and legacy documents and return to communities with a plan of action. “One of the things with community…