CITY COMMISSION AGENDA ITEM

Department:	City Manager’s Office		Commission Meeting Date:  9/20/2016
Staff Contact:	Megan Gilliland and Porter Arneill
Recommendations/Options/Action Requested:
Approve TGT Advisory Board recommended changes for the FY2017 funding cycle and authorize promotion of the program for 2017 funding. The Advisory Board will complete the process of reviewing applications in December and then forward recommendations to the City Commission for final approval.
Executive Summary:		In the 2017 budget deliberations, the City Commission set aside $150,000 for the Transient Guest Tax grant program.  The grant program was created in 2016 and funded 15 of requests thus far.  The first cycle was challenging since it was the initial attempt at grouping events, programs, etc. into a formalized program.  The advisory board met twice and discussed program changes they felt would clarify and solidify the program’s goals – those changes have been made in the grant guidelines document.   The advisory board recommends revision of the program goals to provide funding for specific events which meet the following objectives: · demonstrate a measurable economic benefit including enhancing the cultural economy or travel/tourism economy, create additional transient guest tax and sales tax; and · enhance Lawrence’s character and reputation for tourist activities and demonstrate pull of regional visitors. The use of a budgeted grant program allows the city to limit opportunities for out-of-cycle requests for event support. Historically, these types of requests were handled on a case-by-case basis and there were no funding guidelines the city used to fund these types of event requests.    The Advisory Board would like to see this funding opportunity once per year and have decisions made the fall proceeding the fiscal year funding so there is plenty of advance time to review applications, deliberate and provide decisions to the entities applying for funds.
Strategic Goal Area:		Economic Development
Fiscal Impact (Amount/Source):		The fiscal impact to the City is $150,000 in pre-budgeted funds.  This item is included in the 2017 TGT Fund budget.
Attachments:		2017 Grant Guidelines and Application Scoring Sheet for FY2017 Funding Minutes from Advisory Board - August 24, 2016 Minutes from Advisory Board - June 16, 2016