LAWTON – The Lawton Economic Development Corp. will receive $313,000 in hotel/motel tax funds for fiscal year 2023. The rest of the organization’s funding – $462,300 -- will come from the city’s PROPEL Capital Improvements Program.
The Lawton City Council voted 5-2 Tuesday to approve Councilman Sean Fortenbaugh’s motion for allocating approximately $2.23 million in hotel/motel tax proceeds for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1. Council members Mary Ann Hankins and Linda Chapman voted against the motion, and Councilman Jay Burk was absent.
City Manager Michael Cleghorn proposed distributing proceeds from the hotel/motel tax as follows:
- $1.57 million split between the Lawton-Fort Sill Chamber of Commerce and the Lawton Economic Development Corp., with the Chamber receiving $800,000 and the LEDC getting $775,300.
- $180,247 to the Hotel/Motel Economic Development Fund.
- $355,000 for tourism-related organizations, including Museum of the Great Plains, Lawton Philharmonic, Lawton Community Theater and Lawton Heritage Association.
- $112,460 for the Lawton Enhancement Trust Authority.
The Chamber originally requested $750,000 but later asked for an additional $50,000 to pay for another staffer because President and CEO Dr. Krista Ratliff has been appointed to the state tourism board, Cleghorn said. Cleghorn added that he had to recalculate his recommendations as a result.
“To make this work, I then had to take the city’s Hotel/Motel Economic Development Fund from $233 (thousand) down to $180 (thousand),” he said. “Still putting money in there, though.”
Cleghorn said he recommended keeping the tourism allocation at $355,000 and boosting the Lawton Enhancement Trust Authority’s allocation from $109,707 to $112,460.
Fortenbaugh wanted to know why Cleghorn had proposed a lower allocation for the Hotel/Motel Economic Development Fund.
“I’m just trying to understand why we would want to decrease our share of the hotel/motel tax at this time,” Fortenbaugh said.
Cleghorn said the hotel/motel already has a healthy balance, and he wanted to find a way to provide an additional $50,000 for the Chamber without taking any money from PROPEL or reducing allocations in other funding categories.
“That’s the best answer I’ve got, and that’s the way I did it,” Cleghorn said. “It still puts a fair number in there. We still have a fairly decent budget in there -- and also, anything not spent comes back into that budget at the end of the year.”
Chamber funding
In discussing the Chamber’s request, Executive Vice President Taron Epps said his organization creates events which draw out-of-town visitors to Lawton. He said those visitors spend the night in Lawton, which generates more hotel/motel tax revenue for the city.
“As you think about this, think about this more in terms of an investment,” he said. “If you want to see the hotel/motel tax – the bottom line – increase, then give the Chamber the ability to do that.”
LEDC funding
Turning back to the proposed allocation for the Lawton Economic Development Corp., Fortenbaugh said he liked the idea of funding that organization entirely with hotel/motel tax dollars. But he also said he was concerned about taking that approach because fuel prices are still high.
“I think that’s going to slow down travel,” he said. “I just don’t know what the effect is going to be of that.”
Fortenbaugh recommended accepting Cleghorn’s recommendations but taking only $313,000 of the LEDC’s funding from the hotel/motel tax revenues, with the rest coming from the PROPEL capital improvement program. He added that he would like to see the council revisit the issue in early January 2023, which would give officials a chance to see if hotel/motel tax collections are matching projections.
City staff will come back to the council with a resolution concerning the allocations, along with contracts with tourism-related organizations, at a later date.