Tag: innkeeper’s tax

Convention, visitors notebook: Innkeeper’s tax revenue up, Monroe County preps for 2024 eclipse

The first meeting of the year for the Monroe County convention and visitors commission (CVC) was relatively upbeat.

It was held on Wednesday at the Monroe Convention Center.

The revenue report for the county’s five-percent innkeeper’s tax showed a a 55-percent increase for the first two months of 2023 compared to the first two months of last year.

Mike McAfee, who’s executive director of Visit Bloomington, described the current state of planning for the solar eclipse next year. The narrow band of the full solar eclipse will pass right over Bloomington just a little over a year from now, on April 8, 2024.

One glumly received point of information was the status of the convention center expansion project, which still has not moved forward as hoped.

The CVC is the five-member public entity that controls expenditures of the innkeeper’s tax revenues. The CVC’s purpose is to promote the development and growth of the convention and visitor industry in Monroe County. Continue reading “Convention, visitors notebook: Innkeeper’s tax revenue up, Monroe County preps for 2024 eclipse” →

Potential convention center deal: City, county leaders meet, agree to meet again

On Wednesday at noon, the possible expansion of the county convention center was the topic of a meeting of Monroe County and Bloomington officials.

The gathering at the county courthouse included county commissioners, some county councilors, city councilmembers and the mayor’s office.

It was the first time that representatives from all four groups had sat at the same table on that topic since early March of 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

After about 45 minutes of conversation, the group had not made much progress, but agreed it was worth another meeting.

The city wants to get a deal done by the end of September. So “sooner rather than later” was the city’s wish for a next scheduled meeting.

One twist that emerged on Wednesday was the possibility that a convention center deal between the city and the county could hinge on Bloomington’s approval of a rezone for land that the county wants to use for construction of a new jail.

At the table were: Mary Catherine Carmichael (Bloomington’s director of public engagement); Susan Sandberg and Sue Sgambelluri (president and vice president of the Bloomington city council); Lee Jones, Julie Thomas, and Penny Githens (Monroe County commissioners); and Cheryl Munson Geoff McKim (Monroe County councilors). Continue reading “Potential convention center deal: City, county leaders meet, agree to meet again” →

Monroe County commission preps for restart to convention center project, maybe before year’s end

From left: David Schaum, Mike Campbell

At a meeting on Friday , a question from a new member of Monroe County’s convention and visitors commission (CVC) got to the heart of a lingering issue for the Bloomington area local government officials.

“It’s my understanding that we’re looking to evaluate whether this convention center is…at a capacity that it would need to grow. Correct?” asked David Schaum.

Schaum got confirmation he was on the right track about a convention center expansion.

Schaum is the new general manager at Fourwinds Lakeside Inn & Marina on Lake Monroe. Schaum is new not just to the general manager job at Fourwinds. He’s new to the Bloomington area, having moved here from Washington D.C.

That means Schaum has not yet been fully briefed on the political friction between the city and the county governments that has stalled the convention center expansion project for more than two years.

The project has gotten as far as a preliminary assessment of sites, with a preferred site recommended by a task force. The price tag for one proposal was around $44 million, but that’s likely increased a lot, given general inflationary pressures and supply chain issues.

About the idea of evaluating the need for an expansion, CVC chair Mike Campbell, told Schaum at Friday’s CVC meeting, “I think we’re a little past that.” Campbell serves on the CVC as associate director of Indiana Memorial Union.

Executive director of the Monroe County Convention Center, Talisha Coppock, added, “We need to grow!” At Friday’s meeting, 10 lost event bookings were reported—purely due to the limited capacity of the current convention center.

The CVC is now looking at a six-month time-frame to get the expansion project restarted.

At Friday’s meeting, the CVC voted to recommend to the seven-member county council that the 2023 budget put $75,000 of the increased innkeeper’s tax revenue towards bumping up a line item for CVC members to use to support the expansion restart. Continue reading “Monroe County commission preps for restart to convention center project, maybe before year’s end” →

Monroe County innkeeper’s tax revenue booming, due in part to ‘revenge travel’

Based on recent monthly numbers for innkeeper’s tax revenue, Monroe County’s tourism industry is back on track after getting hit hard by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.

On Friday, the revenues from the county’s 5-percent innkeeper’s tax were reported by Mike Campbell at a meeting of the convention and visitors commission. Campbell chairs the five-member group.  The tax is paid by guests at lodging establishments, including short-term rentals  like Airbnb and Vrbo.

The monthly figures from the September, October and November reports achieved all-time highs for those months, based on data going back to 1999. Numbers reported for a given month reflect business done in the previous month. Continue reading “Monroe County innkeeper’s tax revenue booming, due in part to ‘revenge travel’” →

Convention center expansion talk picks back up: “People want to be together.”

View of the Monroe County convention center looking southwest from the top of the new 4th Street parking garage.

Two recent meetings of Monroe County officials featured renewed enthusiasm to start thinking again about the convention center expansion project.

The downtown project, which Bloomington and Monroe County officials have been pursuing for a few years now, had hit yet another rough patch in early March 2020, just before the pandemic hit.

The COVID-19 pandemic effectively paused the effort, as city and county elected officials were at odds over the way members would be appointed to a yet-to-be-established capital improvement board (CIB).

A year and a half later, at the county council’s Sept. 15 hearing on the convention center budget, council president Eric Spoonmore helped put the expansion project back on the civic radar. “I don’t want us to lose sight of this very important convention center expansion project that we have promised to the community,” Spoonmore said. Continue reading “Convention center expansion talk picks back up: “People want to be together.”” →

Convention and visitors group eyes 2021 recovery, helped by food and beverage money

On Thursday, convention and visitors commissioner Mike Campbell delivered to his colleagues an update on Monroe County’s innkeeper’s tax revenues. The news was not as bad as over the summer.

Another bright spot on Thursday for the five-member convention and visitors commission (CVC) related to a different revenue source—the countywide food and beverage tax. The CVC approved a quarterly debt payment of $159,000 from a fund that holds food and beverage money.

It was a bright spot, because historically it has been the innkeeper’s tax that has paid for debt service. The use of the food and beverage money needed approval from the food and beverage tax advisory commission (FABTAC).

The FABTAC recommended that up to $300,000 of the county’s share of food and beverage tax revenues could be used to service the debt from past renovations and land acquisition for the convention center.

Monthly revenues from innkeeper’s tax, a 5-percent charge on lodging in the county, hit their COVID-19 pandemic low point in June. That’s when the $48,541 collected in 2020 was just 16.8 percent of the $288,525 that was collected in June 2019.

The $189,306 that has been collected through the first two months of 2021, is 65.2 percent of the $290,290 in innkeeper’s tax revenue that was collected in January and February last year, Campbell reported.

About the potential positive signs of recovery in those figures, Campbell said, “There seems to be at least some solace in that it’s not where we were in the summertime.” Continue reading “Convention and visitors group eyes 2021 recovery, helped by food and beverage money” →

Monroe County asks food and beverage tax group to recommend use of tax proceeds for convention center debt

R Output INNKEEPERS TAX BY MONTH YEAR OVER YEAR with NO projections JAN 6 ARTICLE
R Output FOOD AND BEVERAGE REVENUE BY MONTH YEAR OVER YEAR December 23

At their Wednesday meeting, Monroe County commissioners decided to send a request to the local food and beverage tax advisory commission (FABTAC) that they be able to use “any and all” of the county’s share of food and beverage tax proceeds for existing convention center debt and management expenses.

Historically it has been innkeeper’s tax revenues that have been used to pay the convention center debt service. But  innkeeper’s tax revenues have have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Food and beverage revenues are also down due to the pandemic, but not by as much.

Under the state statute on food and beverage taxes, the request needs to go before the seven-member FABTAC and get a favorable recommendation, before the tax revenue can be used the way the commissioners are requesting. Continue reading “Monroe County asks food and beverage tax group to recommend use of tax proceeds for convention center debt” →

Monroe County looking to rectify CVC’s violation of Open Door Law with meeting reenactment, possible new guidelines

Monroe County’s five-member convention and visitors commission (CVC) met on Wednesday Dec. 9 at noon.

The meeting was not accessible to the public as required under Indiana’s Open Door Law. That’s because the Zoom video conferencing link that was used to conduct the meeting had not been posted on Monroe County’s website, or anywhere else The Square Beacon could see.

According to Monroe County attorney Margie Rice, the approach will be next week to hold a properly noticed, publicly accessible meeting of the CVC to ratify the actions taken at the Wednesday meeting, as well as four other meetings held earlier this year.

The tentative date for the meeting to re-enact the CVC’s work for previous meetings is Dec. 18.

The purpose of the CVC as a public body under state statute is to promote the development and growth of the convention and visitor industry in the county using funds generated by the county’s 5-percent innkeeper’s tax.

Rice told The Square Beacon that when she reviewed the situation arising out of the Dec. 9 meeting, she concluded that four other CVC meetings held earlier this year, after the  COVID-19 pandemic hit,  had violated the Open Door Law in the same way. There was no way for the public to access those meetings because the Zoom link had not been posted. Continue reading “Monroe County looking to rectify CVC’s violation of Open Door Law with meeting reenactment, possible new guidelines” →

Convention center budget session: A glimpse into possible timing for tourism recovery

A week ago Friday, the Monroe County council wrapped up a series of four budget work sessions in as many days.

On the docket for Friday were the funds related to the county’s convention center.

The recovery of the area’s tourism industry from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has already begun, but it will be gradual. It will follow a U-shaped trend, not a V-shaped pattern, according to Mike Campbell, who serves on the county’s 5-member convention and visitors commission.

Campbell sits on the board in his capacity as the associate director of the Indiana University Memorial Union.

Campbell gave projections for the county’s 5-percent innkeeper tax based on numbers that show a recovery starting to take shape. Revenues are expected to rebound from a low of about $49,000, reported in June this year. That was just 17 percent of the total for June in 2019, which was about $289,000.

Already on the books are increases in July and August to 40 percent and 60 percent of revenue for those same months last year. Based on September’s numbers so far, Campbell thinks the now-projected $155,000 figure for September will be hit. It won’t be until August of next year, however, when the revenues are forecasted to be back to previous levels.

Some of the projected recovery is due to latent travel demand that would not have been seen otherwise, because the usual large events are not taking place. For example, the cancelation of Indiana University football games means a loss of bookings, but that makes room for people looking to visit the area to view the fall foliage. Continue reading “Convention center budget session: A glimpse into possible timing for tourism recovery” →

Monroe County imposes hiring freeze, assessor says half of all assessed property value could vanish due to COVID-19 “disaster” claims

At the county council’s work session held Tuesday night, Monroe County assessor Judy Sharp sketched out one possible dire impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: Half the assessed value of property in the county could disappear.

Cropped 2020-04-28 Zoom county council Screen Shot 2020-04-28 at 5.35.31 PM
Screen grab of the April 28, 2020 work session of the Monroe County council, which was conducted on a Zoom videoconference.

The assessed value is the figure on which city, county, school and other property taxes are computed.

Sharp encouraged the council to pass the resolution on their agenda imposing a hiring freeze until July 1 of this year.  The council approved the measure on a unanimous vote.

“It’s scary,” said Sharp, saying she’s never seen anything like it in her 35 years of experience. Sharp said she does not think the kind of disaster claims she’s expecting are applicable to a pandemic.

But based on the thousands of clients she hears that tax firms are lining up, she thinks the one claim she’s received so far, and denied, will soon turn into a deluge for her office. Continue reading “Monroe County imposes hiring freeze, assessor says half of all assessed property value could vanish due to COVID-19 “disaster” claims” →