Our email campaign to the commissioners has been remarkably effective. You are a powerful force when you take the time to be heard. The commissioners are now sensitive to the issues and your feelings on the subject. This is important when the Tourist Development Council (TDC) proposal eliminating art & culture (A&C) as a percentage of tourist tax revenue comes up for a vote next month.
The Tourist Developement Council itself is another matter. They are the ones that have played a shell game with A&C funds in violation of the county ordinance for years. They are now attempting to eliminate A&C as a category and lump it in one pot with sports they can spend without guidelines.
The council is not elected and remains low profile. Chances are you don't know who is on the TDC and no doubt they would like to keep it that way. TDC has been making decisions harmful to the future of A&C and has never considered your thoughts on the matter.
It is time they hear from you. HCA has fund their names and email addresses. Below you will see the email links to the council members.
We have also put together a sample letter covering the issues involved. You can copy and paste the letter, or better yet use your own words and email it to them by clicking the links in blue in the right hand column.
Let them feel the power of your voice. They have been behind the curtain too long.
Time is of the essence. TDC will be meeting 8:15 AM, Thursday, April 25 to decide on guideline issues impacting the future of A&C in HighlandsCounty. Be heard!
At your service,
Fred Leavitt, President
Heartland Cultural Alliance
Sample letter (talking points)
For over a decade the Tourist Development Council (TDC) has denied HighlandsCounty its chance to reach out to the cultural tourist. This is the largest, fastest growing, cleanest and most prosperous segment of the market. Cultural tourism is proven to turn around rural economies and enrich communities
.
The TDC has been derelict in its duties to grow tourism by implementing guidelines that discourage art & cultural (A&C) organizations from applying for grants to promote our A&C assets. Impediments like:
- Proving heads in beds
- Paying upfront without guarantee of reimbursement
- Sport-centric application forms
- Event promotion only
- Not providing for promotion of place (branding)
The most destructive of all is the lock you have on heads in beds as criteria for any funding. Might I remind you that heads-in-beds is the source of funding and not the purpose of the tax. The reason for the tax is to enhance the image of HighlandsCounty, bring tourists here and bolster our economy.
The records show that TDC has an annual budget surplus of well over $500,000 sitting in a bank. This is not good stewardship of public funds. This money is designated to expand tourism not fatten a bankers wallet.
It would appear you have more then enough money generated from the bed tax annually to invest a percent of it in our future as a cultural destination. Removing the A&C percentage from the heads-in-beds criterion would also enable A&C organizations to initiate projects on a pay by supplier invoice bases rather then the crippling pay up front and wait gamble you now have in place.
It is known there is no one on the council experienced in marketing to the cultural tourist. You are remiss in not engaging our A&C community to attract this huge market.
There are many examples of counties that are nurturing and promoting their cultural assets. They are prospering because of it. You are doing the opposite.
Perhaps the hardest thing to understand is after taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from A&C causing great loss of tourism growth you now want to remove it from future funding altogether. I wonder who benefits from this. Not our community or our children
