Sioux Falls, SD (KELO-AM) Sioux Falls Mayor Huether on Thursday gave public thanks to the 14-member committee that reviewed the near $3 million the city gives each year to the Convention & Visitors Bureau. He again called for more accountability from the CVB.
Mayor Huether says Sioux Falls owes the committee a "heavy dose of gratitude." for going above and beyond with more time and effort than anyone really expected.
The Review Committee suggested a strategic plan for the CVB, expanding the existing Venture Fund, and for the CVB to establish specific measurements of performance.
Huether called on the CVB to use more prudence in the use of the tax dollars they're getting until they can provide more specific measurements or direct results of what the effort is accomplishing. Huether says the city has been trying to get more specific results out of the CVB for years. He says it's the kind of thing that "drives taxpayers bonkers."
The CVB BID was created in 2011 to collect a $2-per-night tax from hotel guests on each room rented. Since then, the city says that revenues have dramatically increased and are expected to reach $2.3 million, or nearly double the initial estimates. During that same time, revenues from the city’s 1 percent lodging tax, which also go to fund the CVB, are expected to double to around $1.2 million per year, bringing the total taxpayer funding for the CVB to more than $3 million.
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