Members of local arts and cultural organizations may be hoping what's old is soon new again.
Once upon a time, in a Chattanooga before aquariums and renovated riverfronts, the Tennessee General Assembly approved a lodging tax in a private act to pay off $3 million in bonds for the construction of what is now McKenzie Arena. A 1983 amendment to that 1980 measure set up a nine-member agency to recommend to the Hamilton County Commission how it would spend additional lodging tax dollars on projects to promote tourism.
In 2007, commissioners dissolved the agency and directed that all subsequent tax money would go to the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB). That agency now is projected to have more than $8.6 million in tax revenue to spend in promotion of the city and county in 2019.
Hamilton County Commissioner Tim Boyd, who had been concerned about the CVB's spending, management and transparency practices (and was shown to be justified in some of his concerns by a 2017 Tennessee Comptroller's Office investigation), would like to see the agency return some of the tax revenue to local arts and cultural organizations.
His suggestion was a 75-25 split, with the CVB keeping 75 percent of the revenue.
We said last year and we still believe the agency could peel off some of that amount. We also said we believe the CVB has done an impressive job attracting tourists here and promoting what is here to see, and we understand that sometimes money has to be given to attract certain events.
Given all that and the knowledge that many convention and visitors bureaus who have similar arrangements get by with lesser percentages of the room tax, and still give to cultural and arts organizations, we feel it's time to work out a new deal.
Perhaps, the CVB could start with turning 5 percent over to local organizations and moving up increments of 5 percent for several years. Maybe the organizations could share in an amount that exceeds a set goal of tax revenue. Perhaps a new agency could recommend how such dollars might be spent.
Boyd had little support on the commission in his previous criticism of, and allegations about, the CVB, so he said he'd now like to see the local arts and cultural organizations take up the cause for themselves.
We hope the tourist agency and its new president and chief executive officer, Barry White, and its board will be open to such a proposal.