The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“There already is a revenue stream to accomplish the things that they keep asking us money for”
[ By Kendra Walker ]
The Mt. Crested Butte town council has apportioned another round of admissions tax grant funds for marketing and the marketing of events taking place in Mt. Crested Butte. While many of the usual suspects were granted funds, a split vote by the town council resulted in zero of those funds going toward the Tourism and Prosperity Partnership’s (TAPP) airline marketing for this winter.
Mt. Crested Butte communications and marketing officer Marisa Maudsley vetted each of the applications this fall and during a special town council meeting on October 12 made her recommendations to council, who then voted on who to fund and the amounts awarded. The council granted funds to the following:
$23,800 to the Adaptive Sports Center to attract new participants
$6,000 to the Chamber for its Crafted event
$28,000 to CB Nordic for its Grand Traverse event
$55,000 to CB Snowsports Foundation for its Freesking Weekend event
$81,400 to Blister for its Blister Summit
$79,000 to Travel Crested Butte for its “Mt. CB Peak Experiences” marketing campaign
However, the council was split on whether to grant TAPP’s request of $200,000 to complement its $500,000 air marketing campaign this winter. “We are looking at a 50 percent increase in the number of airline seats coming in this winter,” read TAPP’s application. “To reduce Minimum Revenue Guarantee (MRG) payouts by the RTA and to keep airline capacity in the future, we must come out with a strong marketing campaign this winter.”
Town manager Isa Reeb reminded the council that they awarded TAPP $160,000 of the $200,000 they requested for last year’s winter grant cycle. She also noted that from 2015 to 2021, TAPP has been awarded a total of $1.2 million in admissions tax grants from Mt. CB, accounting for 33.4 percent of the town’s admissions tax grant budget over that amount of time.
Maudsley’s recommendation was to fully fund their request, and explained that from her previous marketing background the requested amount is not out of line for this type of digital marketing campaign.
“It’s not that the cost is out of line it’s just there’s a revenue stream that exists that we have discussed should be sufficient to cover marketing for the county,” said council member Lauren Koelliker, noting the county’s Local Marketing District (LMD) tax. “One of the LMD’s purposes is marketing and it’s a designated funding stream voters approved county-wide… TAPP then asks for additional funds to fulfill the task that the LMD was supposed to fill,” said Koelliker.
“I understand what John [Norton, TAPP executive director] has explained that air travel in the winter tends to benefit Mt. Crested Butte because people come to ski at the resort, but that’s exactly what the LMD is supposed to be funding,” she continued. “And I also don’t think the other municipalities are told, well this benefits your town therefore your marketing dollars should pay more for it. I think that’s unique to us because we have a marketing fund,” said Koelliker.
“Three-fourths of the people that historically have been on those flights in the winter stay in Mt. Crested Butte,” said Norton. He also explained that TAPP has worked with Vail Resorts to pick strong markets catering to Epic passholders that would likely fly through Denver.
“For whatever reason this year United really decided to bump up our service from Denver and that is something we have been asking for a really long time to have more flights,” said mayor Janet Farmer. She explained that TAPP wants to market to areas that would more likely fly through Denver, such as Chicago and the Northeast, rather than through Dallas or Houston, “to try and get those Denver flights at a higher percentage of capacity so that we can have the option of having that many flights again in the future.”
Council member Roman Kolodziej did not think TAPP should receive any grant funds. “This has been a known event, having an increase in flights for some time,” he said. “They’ve had ample time to modify their budget. The county just went over their budget this morning. TAPP has a budget of $2.89 million and our estimated contribution to the LMD this year is $1.1 million and I’m surprised they didn’t modify their budget to reflect the priorities and honor the fact that there already is a revenue stream to accomplish the things that they keep asking us money for.”
“I think TAPP has a dedicated funding source that is not being managed as well as it could be and for us to be requested to step in and make it so they don’t have to… I agree with you that we should not fund it,” said council member Dwayne Lehnertz.
“This is a bitter pill for me because I do have a winter-based business and I think with additional revenue it really could help the situation but we’ve barked up the tree for how many years to encourage the county commissioners to reprioritize what the LMD is supposed to be doing and maybe this is a vehicle to do that,” said Kolodziej.
Farmer understood the concerns and suggested that they fund half of the request, granting $100,000. “A lot of this will go into paying for marketing between now and the first of the year and that budget that was approved by the commissioners today would be for 2022 and so wouldn’t affect the marketing that would be done between now and the first of the year,” she said.
“But haven’t there been record collections for this year for LMD?” asked Koelliker.
“Yes,” said Reeb.
“TAPP makes its own budget, the commissioners approve it so there could have been $200,000 pulled from something else to fulfill this and we even sent a letter suggesting that happen,” said Koelliker. “Every year we’ve said this will change next time.”
“So if we cut that spigot off does that 75 percent go down to 45 percent,” said councilman Michael Bacani.
“No I think still 3/4 of the fliers will stay in Mt. Crested Butte, I just think there will be fewer fliers,” said Norton. “There’s a chance we don’t fill the flights enough…in the history of our flights program, the last time we had a major increase we had a significant decrease in seats the next year. And a significant decrease in winter seats comes at Mt. Crested Butte’s expense because 3/4 of the people who fly stay here.”
“I see the value in this very much so,” said Kolodziej. “But how many times do we need to encourage the commissioners to refocus their strategy with the LMD. There’s $1.1 million dollars out there already and at what point do you force the hand?”
The council was split, with Farmer, Bacani and council member Steve Morris voting to grant TAPP $100,000 for air marketing, and Lehnertz, Kolodziej and Koelliker voting against. Council member Nicholas Kempin was not present for the meeting, so with a 3-3 vote, the motion failed and TAPP will not receive any admissions tax funds from Mt. Crested Butte.
