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Tourism director asks Spencer County for bridge funding as transient-room taxes dip
Summary
Tourism director Catherine Scott told the fiscal court the department faces a monthly gap averaging about $1,500 because transient-room-tax revenue declined after prolonged state-park campground closures and other lost lodging; she sought temporary county support to maintain a paid tourism director and avoid returning to an all-volunteer model.
Catherine Scott, Spencer County's tourism director and county economic advocate, told the Fiscal Court on June 1 that transient-room-tax revenue has fallen sharply after prolonged closures at a state-park campground and other local lodging disruptions. Scott said that roughly a quarter of the county’s transient-room-tax base historically comes from the state park and that its extended closure reduced revenue available for tourism operations.
Scott said the tourism office has been operating at a deficit and that the office's conservative monthly transient-tax projection (about $4,500/month) has not materialized; she described a shortfall that averages roughly $1,500 per month and asked the court for bridge funding to avoid eliminating the paid tourism director position. She said the tourism staff reduced its budget by about two-thirds and has used compliance work and online scraping tools to identify short-term rentals obligated to remit tax.
Why it matters: the tourism director argued that keeping a paid director preserves compliance work that collects transient-room taxes and supports marketing and event functions that generate county economic activity. Court members asked for additional documentation — prior budgets, expense reports and multi-year revenue data — and did not commit to immediate funding, deferring the request into the county’s upcoming budget deliberations.
Scott also presented proposed updates to tourism commission bylaws and asked the court to appoint three nominees to the tourism commission subject to the city’s concurrence. The court approved the appointments contingent on city approval and asked the tourism director to provide supplemental financial documents before the budget meeting.
Ending: the court did not provide immediate bridge funding. The tourism director will supply the requested budget and expense reports for the court’s budget review in late June.
