Friday, March 29, 2024

City Council must rethink their decision to fund Autumn Leaf

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In the interest of full disclosure I am a Past President of Autumn Leaf and the current Treasurer.

At the March 10 City Council session, Council voted to fund the Washington State Autumn Leaf Festival at $30,300 for 2020. Autumn Leaf had requested the funding be increased to $40,000. The city has authorized $30,000 for the last few years.

The funding comes from Lodging Tax collections which by state law must be spent for advertising or tourism related facilities. Advertising expenditures must be spent in communities that are more than 60 miles from Leavenworth. It is often referred to as the “heads in beds” tax. This is because the tax is collected by hotels and lodging facilities for the purpose of promoting tourism in order to put more heads in local lodging facility beds.

In Leavenworth’s case the city received $2.4 million in Lodging Tax last year an increase of 14.8 percent. The city also received $1.85 million in Retail Sales Tax in 2019. While the sales tax was nearly identical to the 2018 receipts, the month of September receipts were up 7.9 percent over 2018.

Retail sales tax receipts for the month of September has historically been the second or third highest month of the year. This is significant when considering the only major festival in September is the Autumn Leaf Festival. A one weekend event.

December and Christmas lighting, with 3 weekends, dwarfs all other months and July is usually the other month that is higher than September in retail sales tax collections. The three weekends of Oktoberfest have only occasionally produced more retail sales tax to the city.

In other words, there is ample financial evidence that the Autumn Leaf Festival has a huge impact on the success of Leavenworth’s tourism economy.

The Washington State Autumn Leaf Festival is the oldest festival. It began with volunteers who traveled around the state visiting other regional events to invite them to come to the “Bavarian Village.” These volunteers reached into their own pockets to fund their promotional efforts. Lack of reliable funding has caused periods of instability in the Autumn Leaf Festival Association (ALFA).

Autumn Leaf does not sell alcohol. It does not charge for attendance at its events. Its only source of revenue to fund its activities is from donations from community businesses and local governments that benefits from the tax receipts generated by our tourism economy. Last year ALFA received $10,000 from Chelan County, $12,000 from local businesses and individuals and $29,000 from the city through direct reimbursement of expenses.

The city’s commitment to ALFA has remained at $30,000 for several years, while the costs of travel for hotel rooms, gas and food have increased every year.

The current plan is for 8 people to attend each of the 9 away festivals. This is the President & First Lady, Royal Lady and First Gentleman or Companion and 4 Bavarian Ambassadors (walkers). It is a pretty minimal crew. Funding for that crew will take all of the $30,300 the city is offering with no money for insurance - $10,300 last year.

City funds are not paid in advance. We must present receipts for reimbursement. That payment can take two to three weeks to get and during prime Festival season timing can be a problem.

There is only one person on the council that has participated in an outside Festival. All have been offered an opportunity to experience the impact the ALFA travel team has on other community festivals. That impact is incredible. When the ALFA float and Bavarian Ambassador team approach people get out of their lawn chairs to join in the “Chicken Dance.” They are screaming, “We love Leavenworth!” Those who have never been to our little Bavarian Village are asking their neighbors on the parade route, “where is Leavenworth?“

The ALFA parade team is like a flash mob that inspires interest in our community like no television ad or print ad can.

We have no idea what this year will bring as the Corona Virus continues to postpone community activities. But the Leavenworth City Council needs to reconsider their decision and insure the oldest, Family Friendly Festival, in Leavenworth has the funding needed to continue bringing tourists to our village.

An additional $9,700 is only 4 tenths of 1 percent of last years Lodging tax receipts. The entire $40,000 request is only 1.7 percent of last year’s Lodging tax. No other organization contributes so much to the local economy for so little. And it has done it consistently for 57 years.

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