The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“It’s a little bit tight this year”
Up in Mt. Crested Butte, there is only so much money in the Admissions Tax Marketing Fund available to spread around. Several organizations submitted requests to the Mt. Crested Butte Town Council for consideration during the council’s September 7 meeting. Crested Butte Mountain Resort, Crested Butte Lodging and Property Management, and the Downtown Crested Butte Lodging Association (DCBLA) all submitted applications for marketing funds. The council was also considering a $1,250 request from the Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce for its Fall Butte Bucks program.
The council preempted the discussion with a summary of the 2011 Admissions Tax Fund budget, with numbers based on being flat from last year. Councilman David Clayton said, “We can commit to $225,000 for winter marketing funding. It’s down a bit because we are trying to build up a reserve. It’s a little bit tight this year.
“If you look at the amount of money available, basically we have $319,560 requested, and we have $225,000 available,” Clayton explained.
Councilman Gary Keiser asked if the projected $60,000 startup costs associated with bringing Continental Airlines to the Gunnison Airport this winter was included in Clayton’s budget breakdown.
Clayton responded, “Continental startup would have to come out of that $225,000.”
CBMR requested $250,000 to support the Buy 2 Get 1 airline seat program, and in a separate request, asked for $30,000 to help subsidize a large-scale event over the weekend of March 26-27, for a total of $280,000.
Crested Butte Lodging requested $30,000 to assist with its marketing efforts, and the Downtown Crested Butte Lodging Association requested $8,309.
The council didn’t have funds available to fulfill all the requests. They awarded CBMR a total of $202,000. Crested Butte Lodging got $22,000. The Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce was allocated $1,250 for the Butte Bucks program. The council decided not to fund the DCBLA’s request, based on the scarcity of funds and questions regarding whether the request met the town’s criteria for Admissions Tax marketing funds.
For the future, “Our target reserve is $100,000, to be used for the timing of requests and magic bullet-type of requests,” said Clayton. By “magic bullet requests” Clayton was referring to opportunities and requests that come up over the course of the season. Those will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
