Presenter/Contact
Presenter
Patrick Aten, City Secretary
Contact Info
(830) 221-4010 - paten@nbtexas.org
Subject Header
SUBJECT:
Title
Approval of the Heritage Commission recommendations for allocating grant awards from hotel occupancy tax to various heritage organizations of the City and authorizing the City Manager to execute contracts with the aforementioned organizations for the purpose of disbursement and use of funding.
Body
BACKGROUND / RATIONALE:
The City Secretary’s Office posted notice of the application process for hotel occupancy tax (HOT) grants via the City’s bulletin board, press release, the City website, and in the Herald-Zeitung; and made the application available for interested heritage organizations beginning in January. The Heritage Commission met on April 15, 2019, to review qualified applications and make recommendations to the City Council.
ADDRESSES A NEED/ISSUE IN A CITY PLAN OR COUNCIL PRIORITY:
N/A
FISCAL IMPACT:
City ordinance requires that 15 percent of Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) collections be allocated to the “enhancement of arts and cultural organizations and programs”. Customarily these proceeds are divided equally between the Arts and Heritage Commissions, who then make recommendations to City Council on the disbursement of their respective halves of the funding. This year, $324,227.43 was made available to the Heritage Commission based on 2018 HOT collections. This amount is slightly more than the Arts Commission had to recommend because of the refund given back to Heritage Commission by the now defunct Historic Museums Association.
Recommendation
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION:
The Heritage Commission voted unanimously for the allocation as listed in this table:
|
Name of Organization |
2018 Award |
2019 Request |
2019 Recommendation |
|
Heritage Society of New Braunfels |
76,560.41 |
97,700.00 |
90,430.11 |
|
Historic Museums Association of New Braunfels |
37,611.74 |
0.00 |
0.00 |
|
New Braunfels Conservation Society |
57,831.94 |
75,000.00 |
69,419.22 |
|
New Braunfels Historic Railroad & Modelers Society, Inc. |
53,983.32 |
79,475.00 |
73,561.24 |
|
Sophienburg Archives and Museum of History |
65,315.09 |
98,117.84 |
90,816.86 |
|
TOTAL |
$291,302.50 |
$350,292.84 |
$324,227.43 |
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends approval of the recommended allocations for the heritage organizations as listed in the above table.