The Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau will have a slightly larger operating budget for the coming year, thanks primarily to an increase from city sales tax collections. The CVB board of directors passed the Fiscal Year 2013 budget on Wednesday at the Board’s retreat in Crawford. The budget is based on a portion of estimated sales tax in 2013. The CVB is funded from a two percent restaurant tax.
The approved budget is $1.6 million, which is about a 10 percent increase from its current budget.
“We are in good financial shape,” said CVB Executive Director Nancy Carpenter. “We have been holding our costs down.”
Among the increases in the new budget are an additional $30,000 for the Columbus-Lowndes Development Link, which will receive $229,000. The CVB is the third largest contributor to the Link, following Lowndes County and Clay County.
The funding for local grants in FY 2013 is $130,000. Local grants are for tourism and quality of life events Carpenter said.
Salaries for Carpenter and her staff increased from $217,680 to $235,459.60 in FY 2013. Carpenter said the increase will allow the hiring of another full-time employee to assist in graphic design and marketing.
The budget was passed on a 5-2 vote. Board members Whirllie Byrd and Harvey Myrick voted against the budget. Board members Bernard Buckhalter and Nadia Dale did not attend the meeting.
On Thursday, Byrd said she felt the board needed to discuss the budget more.
“There was not adequate time to go over the budget,” said Byrd. “I don’t like crunching numbers within a couple of hours. I don’t like that, rushing through numbers when you’re dealing with over a million dollars. It’s just too important a decision to make without any forethought.”
“The board took action and I think we just need to be sure to stay within the budget and not amend it or gerrymander it as time goes by,” board member Mark Castleberry said Thursday.
The board also voted to fund the Seventh Avenue Festival ($15,000), the MLK Dream 365 ($15,000) and Caledonia Days Festival ($8,000).
The CVB will next meet on Aug. 20 at 4 p.m.
Jeff Clark was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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