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Business and state tourism officials urge Williamson County to preserve Visit Franklin funding
Summary
Four speakers including Visit Franklin’s CEO and the state tourism analytics chief told the budget committee that cutting the convention and visitors bureau would reduce county revenue, citing validated visitor-spend figures and hotel occupancy tax returns.
Four speakers during the citizen comment portion of the hearing urged the budget committee not to cut funding for Visit Franklin, the county’s convention and visitors bureau (CBB).
Moren Thornton, president and CEO of Visit Franklin, said the bureau helps generate tax revenue that benefits both county services and local schools and presented a handout asserting a $1,631 tax-savings-per-household figure and a $18.8 million estimate of visitor-driven local option sales tax flowing to schools. "Funding our work is an investment in our ability to generate revenue to the county as a whole," Thornton told the committee.
Josh Gibson, chief analytics and strategy officer for the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, backed Thornton’s figures as analysis used by the state and other agencies, saying the numbers are validated and that Williamson County accounts for a substantial visitor economy. "That 1.3 billion represents 14% of all taxable sales that happened in your community," Gibson said, specifying that the figure came from Department of Revenue data.
Hesh Patel, a hotel owner and member of local economic organizations, and Nathan Zipper of Williamson, Inc. also urged commissioners to maintain Visit Franklin’s funding level, saying visitor spending supports restaurants, retailers and other small businesses and that cutting marketing risked reducing that revenue.
Committee members debated a proposed 5% reduction to hotel/motel tax distributions to the CVB but, according to the transcript vote, the reduction motion was denied and the committee proceeded with related budget amendments that restored the CVB allocation for the purpose of drafting the budget resolution going forward.
Taken together, speakers asked the committee to treat Visit Franklin’s budget as a revenue-producing investment rather than a cost center; county staff and at least one commissioner agreed that the CVB contributes to local revenue generation.
