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Lodging tax to be studied |
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Tuesday, 17 November 2009 |
By WILLIAM LANEY
Managing Editor
A proposal to help beautify downtown Wapakoneta and make the city more inviting to tourists would be funded through a new tax — but the tax would only be on visitors to hotels and motels within the city.
Wapakoneta 4th Ward Councilor Dan Graf received instruction from his fellow councilors Monday to continue investigating the feasibility of instituting a 3 percent lodging tax.
“The lodging tax would be included on bills of people staying at hotels and motels, not campgrounds, and we could charge up to 3 percent,” Graf said during Monday’s Wapakoneta City Council meeting. “The tax could be collected and used for certain downtown activities to draw people to Wapakoneta, to the downtown area and the gateways to the downtown.
“I am proposing this to see if my fellow councilors are interested and if I could see if members of other councils and boards are interested in this,” he said. “I would investigate the possibility and develop proposals in order to move forward.”
He estimated the lodging tax would generate approximately $20,000 per year.
Graf said the idea had been considered previously as a way to fund downtown activities, such as “Party in the Parkway” and other ventures, without using city tax dollars, which is better spent on providing services to city residents.
He also noted the success of programs and promotions by the Auglaize-Mercer Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), which is funded through a 3 percent lodging tax on hotels and motels throughout Auglaize County.
“Having served on the board of CVB, I have seen how that money has been used to support tourism activities and draw people to the county and I also have seen the benefits to the retail sector,” Graf said. “I thought this would be a good way to do that here as well as looking at ideas developed in the comprehensive plan and this would be a way to finance those programs.”
The councilor said he would like to see some money used to provide grant money or to subsidize downtown building owners to help maintain the architectural integrity of downtown buildings.
Mayor Rodney Metz told the Wapakoneta Daily News he would like more details on the lodging tax and how the money would be spent — but he favors the fact the tax is not on local residents.
“It is an interesting concept, but I would like to have more details before formally supporting the proposal,” Metz said. “I do know this is a tax which should not affect our local residents, which I would consider a positive for the city.
“It obviously doesn’t generate a huge amount of money, but looking at the amount of money generated by the Auglaize-Mercer Convention and Visitors Bureau that would provide a nice base from which to build,” the mayor said. “We could use the money to get a few projects started and then the private sector or donations could be used to complete the project, or the money could be used to leverage state and federal grants to see a project to fruition.”
During the meeting, Wapakoneta 3rd Ward Councilor Bonnie Wurst said she believed councilors would “need more information before they could make a formal decision on the matter.”
Council President Don Jump then placed the issue in Finance Committee, which is chaired by Councilor-at-large Wilbur Wells.
Wells said he would like to meet with Graf on the subject and asked if Graf could “come forward with different ways the money could be spent to improve Wapakoneta and to increase tourism in the city.”
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 18 November 2009 )
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