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House committee approves
Bailey's tourist promotion bill
Measure allows chambers of commerce continued
use of 'hotel-motel' tax
The House Community,
Economic Development and Trade Committee has approved legislation
sponsored by
Rep.
Barbara Bailey that would clarify that chambers of commerce may
continue the practice of using "hotel-motel" taxes for tourism
promotion.
House Bill 1254 cleared the committee today on a vote of 8-1.
"Various chambers of commerce in
the 10th District have
previously received monies to help finance their tourism enterprises. Those
efforts included production and mailing of tourism brochures, phone
inquiries and other expenses of running a tourist information center,"
said Bailey, R-Oak Harbor. "After the attorney general's opinion, some
municipalities were unclear whether they could provide those funds and
have subsequently put those monies on hold until the law is clarified."
Some local governments,
said Bailey, are not set up to promote tourism. So those governments
have provided funding from the "hotel-motel" tax to their local chambers
of commerce for tourism promotion and activities. Mount Vernon Chamber
of Commerce President and CEO Kristen Whitener said
the measure is needed to ensure chambers of commerce may
continue to use those funds.
"Representative Bailey's
bill just clarifies the law to say that the municipality does not have
to have ownership of visitor centers to provide operational expenses
which keep those front doors to the communities open," said
Whitener, who had previously testified in favor of the bill during a Feb.
1 hearing.
The measure would authorize local lodging tax revenues to be
used for tourism-related facilities owned by a public entity or a
nonprofit 501 (c)(6) organization. In addition, it
authorizes municipalities using local lodging tax revenues for tourism
promotion to contract with nonprofit organizations for tourism promotion
activities.
Bailey noted that her bill
would address the use of the funds for chambers of commerce, but it
would not broaden the scope of the law to allow other uses.
The measure now goes to
the House Rules Committee which will decide when the legislation will be
sent to the House floor for a vote.
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For more information, contact: John
Sattgast, Information Officer: (360) 786-7257
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