Poised to tighten, council instead loosens tourism purse strings

Electric City has voted to put all of its hotel/motel tax money in one account and asked its attorney to draw up an ordinance indicating this.

The city council, in response to the chamber of commerce’s objections to the city holding a large reserve fund, voted to fold its reserve account of about $280,000 into its regular hotel/motel account.

The city has had a policy of holding back half of each year’s tax collection, socking it away for a future use. And the council had been considering putting most of it into an account that could only be tapped for building tourism-related facilities.

The new direction would put all of the city’s hotel/motel dollars into one basket, providing easier access for disbursement.

The council accordingly instructed Anna Franz, of the city’s law firm, who attended the meeting, to develop a hotel/motel ordinance showing only a single account.

At the city council’s last meeting, Councilmember Brad Parrish told the council that he would like to see the city get involved in putting in a trail system.

It was the first indication by the city of a project in mind for the reserve funds.

Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber of Commerce officials had appeared last year at other councils to outline the effectiveness of last year’s tourism advertising efforts, showing some outstanding gains in the number of people coming to the coulee. Electric City had indicated last fall that it wasn’t necessary to appear before its council, but Tuesday the chamber made its case.

Last spring, the Electric City Council had voted to make 75 percent of the money brought in through hotel/motel tax money available for advertising use, putting 25 percent in the reserve account. Then later, last winter, the council voted to make 50 percent available and put the other half into the reserve account. Now, all of the city’s hotel/motel nest eggs will be in a single account, doing away with the proposed capital improvement account.

The council as a whole has not indicated whether it would pursue Parrish’s interest in a pathway that would connect Coulee Playland and the causeway, so that visitors as well as local people would have a safe place to walk through the city.