Albany City Commission examines financial relationship with tourism-related organizations

ALBANY – The Albany City Commission is considering a change in the use of hotel/motel tax collections that would give it more control in how some of that money is spent.

The tax is expected to bring in about $2.4 million for the 2024-2025 budget year, and city staff is looking for guidance in how to distribute the portion of the money controlled by the city for the budget year beginning July 1 and beyond.

Under state law, the city must use at least 43.75% of the tax for tourism, convention and trade shows and has designated the Albany Convention and Visitors Bureau as its designated marketing organization for that purpose.

The city is required to allocate an additional 18.75% of collections to tourism product development. That leaves 37.5% in non-restricted funds that can be allocated by the commission.

Currently, the city distributes the funds it controls in the amounts of $882,000 for Chehaw Park and Zoo, $800,000 to the CVB, $200,000 for the Albany RiverQuarium, $100,000 for the Albany Civil Rights Institute and $45,000 for the Albany Area Arts Council.

The remaining 17% ($413,000) is transferred to the city’s general fund.

“My position is the city should control this money more collectively,” Mayor Bo Dorough said during discussion at a Tuesday commission work session. “The community ought to be exerting more control over expenditures. It is a policy decision to resume control or involvement that was relinquished in 2018.

“For example, if there’s something at the RiverQuarium that needs to be fixed, we could allocate (to) them $75,000, or the Civil Rights Institute or Chehaw.”

The staff recommendation is to leave the current allocation in place, Interim City Manager Derrick Brown said.

The second option presented on Tuesday would allow the commission to review and revise, if needed, existing agreements with the agencies. The city also would receive reports on a regular basis from the agencies prior to spending of funds.

A third option would allocate $1,050,000 to the CVB, with $900,000 in non-restricted funds and $450,000 allocated to tourism. Payments to the CVB in excess of $800,000 would be earmarked to the Arts Council, Chehaw, Civil Rights Institute and RiverQuarium.

The city currently receives quarterly reports from Chehaw and the RiverQuarium as part of their contracts with the city, Brown said.

The city also could expert more control through contracts using the second option, Commissioner Chad Warbington said. 

“(For) example, we could go in and say, ‘You will be open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday,'” he said. “We could work that into our contract. Option 3, that’s going to take a lot of work. Certainly all of these entities are important to the community.”

Staff Photo: Alan MauldinAlanMauldin[email protected]