Hotel/Motel tax committee: disperse funds via applications

RED OAK -Members of a hotel/motel tax committee proposed allocating the estimated $70,000 in revenue through a grant application at a public forum last week in Red Oak.

About two dozen community members attended the forum, including several members of the committee, including Chair Jeanice Lester, Randy Orme, Mark Benda, Deb Couse and Paul Griffen.

Red Oak's City Council formed the committee to gather information from other communities with the up to 7 percent lodging tax, as well as citizen input on how to spend it.

“There are no right or wrong questions or answers,” Lester, who is also a member of the Council, said at the start of the meeting. “We are strictly asking for suggestions so we can collect data and present it to the city council.”

During their poll of some of the other 145 Iowa communities with the tax, committee members said many of them used an application process to receive funds.

“That gives everybody the opportunity to apply and makes it the most fair. It doesn't mean you will get it, but at least you will have the opportunity,” Lester said.

Kara Sherman, executive director of the Wilson Performing Arts Center, supported the application process with a twist.

“It gives you some ownership and responsibility along with just being handed a nice gift,” Sherman said. “It is just another way to work it.”

Councilman Fred Pilecki suggested 10 percent of the funds go to a citywide cleanup.

“We are in desperate need of it,” Pilecki said of the cleanup. “I think that helps as far as tourism goes by cleaning up our city and it would benefit a large number of citizens in the city and I think that is a very positive thing.”

Lester said the committee discussed requiring funds be dispersed by pre-determined percentages, but they felt that was too restricting.

“It really confines you,” she said. “If somebody has a great project and needs 70 percent of it and has a great, great idea, you couldn't fund it.”

But she added she has heard feedback that the funds should be used for things other than the routine day-to-day expenses of the city.

“They did not want to see it go for a new mower,” she said. “They wanted it to be more specific so it didn’t go for things the city should be responsible for in the first place and that was kind of a thought process to have some specifics there so the community as a whole benefits more.”

As the current resolution that will go before voters in November reads, 50 percent of the funds would be directed to tourism/recreation, while the other 50 percent would go into the city’s general fund. Committee members indicated they wanted to see all the funds go to recreation and tourism.

“The goal is to fill the Super 8 and Red Coach Inn every night,” Benda said. “When it's full, people spend money, so maybe we are going to open another retail business. The Performing Arts Center is going to do better, the Red Oak Country Club is going to do better. We are all going to do better because of this.”

Couse likened the tax to another painless procedure that produces a lot of benefits.

“I liken this to giving blood,” she said. “It doesn't hurt us at all but it does really good things … and can be really helpful.”

The committee will host a second forum June 19, in the Fire Department Meeting Room starting at 7 p.m.