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Businesses and community organizations hoping to receive a grant for marketing money from the town of Mt. Crested Butte’s admissions tax fund will now have to ask a newly formed committee for any contributions.
On Wednesday, November 5, the Mt. Crested Butte Town Council approved an application for admissions tax fund requests and a two-member admissions tax committee.
The admissions tax is a 4 percent tax charged on events or activities that require admission in Mt. Crested Butte, including lift tickets, concerts, movies, and the newly formed Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team. Of the accumulated funds, 25 percent must be spent on transportation and 75 percent is reserved for marketing purposes.
The town is expecting to receive about $400,000 in admission tax funds for 2008.
The council first discussed the idea of setting up some rules for admissions tax contributions during a budget meeting in October.
Traditionally, the Town Council has reviewed all requests for admissions tax funds, and has done so without any pre-set rules other than the funds must be used for marketing purposes. However, in more recent requests, the Town Council has asked businesses and organizations to track the success of their marketing programs and the economic impact on the town.
On Wednesday, town manager Joe Fitzpatrick had prepared a draft application for organizations to fill out when requesting admissions tax funds.
According to the application, “All marketing programs need to have a measurable return on investment and assist in increasing sales tax revenue for the town of Mt. Crested Butte.” Other criteria in the application include a division of admissions tax marketing funds, with 70 percent allocated for winter tourism and activities, and the remaining 30 percent for summer, spring and fall.
The application also requests an outline of the demographic market a proposed marketing program is targeted for, a definition of the tools that will be used to measure response to the marketing program, and an outline of the types of media that will be used in marketing efforts.
The council also approved a two-member admission tax marketing committee comprised of council members. The committee will be responsible for creating an admissions tax budget and reviewing and screening requests. All selected requests would be sent to the full Town Council for final consideration.
Originally, the draft application contained a provision that requests could be for a maximum of $10,000 per applicant, and further requests would automatically have to be discussed by the council. Council member Gary Keiser said some applicants might want to speak to the council anyway. “I’d just take it out,” he said of the $10,000 maximum.
Councilman Bill Babbitt asked if the committee should have two or three members. Fitzpatrick said he was suggesting two members because that way, the committee would not have to give notice of meetings. “If we keep it at two, whenever people are ready (for a meeting) we can do it,” he said.
Fitzpatrick said there could be two regular members and an alternate without having a noticing requirement.
Councilman David Clayton said that was a good idea and would help move the process along if a council member was out of town.
Clayton and councilman Andrew Gitin volunteered for the committee. Both the committee and the admissions tax marketing request proposal were unanimously approved. Councilmen Mike Kube and William Buck were absent.
