wilkes

I don't remember if the citizens were given the chance to vote on the occupancy tax, or if it was just the commissioners. But now that the tax is in place, we have no way to force them to use it for what they said they would!

They need to be held accountable for things like this. And it's why we should always vote against any new tax, no matter how good it sounds at first.

****, sure I wish I had a 3 day do nothing job paying $63 + a year. I would be happier than a pig in slop trough. Wait, someone already is. Keep voting all the same o crooks back in time after time after time.

Only thing the occupancy tax did for lenoir was finally find a way to tax prostitution and drugs.

This seems like a really big deal to me.

Several years ago the county commissioners voted in favor of an occupancy tax. Hotels would be charging an extra tax for staying here, and that tax money would go to a TDA. At the time, Charlie Sink was the main advocate for it. The JP said:

Sink referred to mandatory limits on use of the revenue that require spending at least two-thirds of the money to promote travel and tourism in parts of Wilkes outside the towns, referred to as "District K." The remaining third must be spent on tourism-related expenditures in District K.

http://www.journalpatriot.c...2bc8b.html

Commissioner Keith Elmore was opposed to it in the same article, saying that:

Commissioner Keith Elmore said the cost of setting up the TDA would take much of the occupancy tax revenue.


"Not one owner of a rental place out in the county has told me they want" an occupancy tax, said Elmore. "I would imagine they already have websites to promote their businesses."

They ended up voting in favor of it, anyway.

Here we are about 5 years later, and sure enough, we read that the TDA has decided to change their ways.

In 2015 they raised $128,460 from the occupancy tax. The TDA kept $124,606 of the funds, and gave $3,854 to the town. Why the town and not the county? No idea, but the mayor of Wilkesboro is a board member for the TDA.

Where does the rest go?

They used to give $40,000 in grants to events, but they're not going to do that anymore.

They plan to update a website that no one has ever heard of for a whopping $14,500.

They plan to give $2,500 to Travel South Media Tour, in the hopes of generating publicity in travel articles.

They sponsor Merlefest for $3,000, down from $10,000 last year. Not a surprise, though, since the director of WCC Endowment is a board member.

$2,500 is going to Boogie Fever Nationals, a four-day competition in June that is expected to bring 800 hotel room reservations.

Last year, they gave $2,400 to hotels, which isn't a surprise since two of the board members are hotel managers (the Holiday Inn and the Addison Inn). They also gave $7,500 to Carolina in the Fall, which isn't a surprise since the owner of the Hampton Inn is the one putting on the concert.

And they gave $7,000 to the Chamber of Commerce, which isn't a surprise since the director is a board member.

And the part time, "2 or 3 days a week" director that lives in another county received a salary of $63,412.

http://www.journalpatriot.c...5a9cb.html

So let's look back at that. 66% of the money was supposed to promote travel and tourism outside of the two towns, and 33% was supposed to be spent inside of the two towns.

But instead, a little over 50% of it goes to pay the salary of the part time director, and 20% goes to the board members. The rest goes in to managing the TDA itself.

And this is why we should vote NO on the Connect NC Bond Referendum. They might say it's going to be one way now, but in a year or two we know that it will just be another way to make a few people's pockets fatter.