Lodging tax possibly funneled into pool resurfacing

Lodging tax targets pool resurfacing
By Kalie Drago
Echo Reporter

    After a public hearing full of passionate citizens, one rejected .03 cent increase and finally a passed tax levy for the community pool - unfortunately the .11 cent property tax still doesn't cover the needed $150,000 (based on a cost estimate from 2016) to resurface the beloved community watering hole. The city council has stirred some conversation up about the possibility of dipping into the Lodging Tax fund to help alleviate some of the cost. During the Nov. 12 study session, the council and two members of Chamber of Commerce weighed the justification of allowing this one time expenditure.
    To preface the argument as to why the pool is of value to tourism, the Mayor noted that there was a large surplus for the Lodging Tax fund for the year. This helped lodge the opportunity to be a wider window for funding the resurfacing of the pool. The 2016 study revealed that a small portion of pool users were in fact tourists or out of the 98826 area code.
    "After many discussions and study sessions, the council came up with the idea of using lodging tax to resurface the pool," said Mayor Farivar. "It seemed initially to me to be an inappropriate use of that fund because of the PRSA covering a much greater area of the pool and that tourism is only a small percentage of the use. But Joel (Walinski, City Administrator) put it in a different way, tourism has used it for 20 years, 10-15 percent of attendance of the pool, so a one time expenditure of lodging tax to resurface the pool and preserve the pool seemed to be appropriate. So that is an option on the table for us to consider."
    However, with several entities eyeing the lodging tax and each separate entity having their own stake, there needed to be a concrete justification for usage by the pool.
    "Using lodging tax inappropriately, not as intended by the legislation, will call a lot of attention on the lodging tax legislation and potentially make it more restrictive," said Farivar.
    Three primary groups have a grip on the lodging tax: Leavenworth Area Promotion, the Chamber of Commerce and additional dollars trickle down to the city of Leavenworth to use for various things such as festivals and improving tourist facilities. All three of these groups funnel the allocated money into tourism in different ways.
    "I think the lodging tax issue is very stressful," said council member Sharon Waters. "The city is guarding their lodging tax for infrastructure, the Chamber is guarding their lodging tax and LAP is guarding their lodging tax and everybody wants more. And the community, for the greater part, is saying no more."
    And beyond these official groups, Leavenworth residents themselves keep a close eye on the lodging tax due to self interest of their community. So all in all, while tourism is a substantial element of the Leavenworth economy, the lodging tax is a big resource for the town itself.  
    "It's certainly one of those funds that communities look at as extra and in our town tourism touches everything," said Chamber of Commerce member, Nancy Smith. "There are always opportunities to make legislation easier to use or more restrictive to use. It happens every year, As communities, they want a legislative to make it easier for them to use and so you see that competition is always on the table because of property."
    The council had to look at dipping in the fund from every angle - Chamber, the residents and LAP. The consensus seemed to surface that the pool does overlap with tourism in several aspects. It seemed the resurfacing of the pool would be in sync with both community and tourism needs and be an efficient use of the fund.
    "I think it's an appropriate use and partly because of its location," said council member, Margaret Neighbors. "It's eye candy. It adds to the whole feeling of the town, it's an amenity. I think cause we open it up to our guests, that it makes it more appropriate. It's a more friendly family thing. It's a marketing thing, rather than a sale."
    Council member Elmer Larsen voiced reasonable concern that funding the pool with lodging tax could somewhat lead to a slippery slope. Later loopholes or manipulating certain areas, such as road work due to tourists driving on that road often, to somehow be circled back to tourism which would be an inappropriate use of lodging tax money.
    Council member Clint Strand echoed this sentiment, but thought a concrete justification would help avoid the possible future twisting of explanation to fund aspects of the city with the lodging tax fund.
    "That pool and that area is part of the town's face. I understand Elmer's slippery slope argument, I do think we need to have a good response as to why this is appropriate (use of lodging tax funds)," said Strand. 'The optics of the dynamic in the city and the business community and the citizens. There is a perception that there is some friction between businesses and residents, 'what have you done for me?'. This could be an opportunity, if we use the funds for this (the pool) to pass the message not only are businesses paying for businesses or tourism is paying for tourism, but this is something that benefits everybody."
    It seemed unanimous by the council that there was a need for a confident explanation to both the groups involved (the Chamber and LAP) and the residents as to why the pool resurfacing is an ideal usage of lodging tax fund. A prompt for a sturdy source of justification was brought up by Jason Lundgren.
    "I think this calls for a deeper analysis of use whether it's the pool or library or trail. I think we need data to support our decision making. I think we're speculating a lot, even the data supporting the pool wasn't super strong," said Lundgren. "I'd like to have more information to justify or not justify. We need to look more broadly at how we use this money, I think we could use it in much more intelligent way if we had more information."
    As of right now, the possibility of using a portion of the lodging tax fund to put into resurfacing the pool is just conversation. However, it is a growing interest for all entities involved - including residents of Leavenworth.