Champaign council poised to renew 5-year funding agreement with visitors bureau

Deb Pressey, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
·2 min read

Jan. 18—CHAMPAIGN — The city of Champaign is poised to renew its funding agreement with Visit Champaign County for five years.

The city council last week directed staff to prepare a five-year agreement with the visitors bureau and bring it back for approval at a later date.

Rob Kowalski, assistant director of planning and development, said the new five-year agreement would continue the same terms as those in the current agreement that is expiring June 30.

Champaign gives Visit Champaign County 0.75 percent of its 7 percent hotel-motel tax but also guarantees the organization a minimum contribution of $255,000 a year, according to Kowalski.

Champaign is, by far, the organization's largest local government funder.

For the current fiscal year, Visit Champaign County receives $25,000 from the University of Illinois, $15,000 from Urbana, $11,500 from Savoy, $10,000 from Champaign County, $10,000 from Rantoul, $2,000 from Mahomet and $700 from St. Joseph, according to Visit Champaign County President and CEO Jayne DeLuce.

More than half of the organization's budget of just over $1 million comes from the state through a Local Tourism and Convention Bureau grant, and there are also some business funders, among them Busey Bank and Carle Health, she said.

Kowalski said Champaign has long seen the economic development advantage of funding tourism.

"I think the city has, for years, seen a really great return on that investment," he said.

Champaign anticipates collecting $2,304,119 in hotel-motel tax money for the current 12-month period ending June 30, and at the current 0.75 percent rate, that would equate $246,849 for Visit Champaign County, according to Kowalski. Under the current agreement, that would be raised to the base amount of $255,000, he said.

Prior to the pandemic, hotel-motel tax revenue had been rising every year. If the economy rebounds more to pre-pandemic levels, the city's annual contribution could rise back up to the $340,000 range, Kowalski said.

The rest of the money the city collects from the hotel-motel tax is used for other purposes. Kowalski said 1.25 percent of it goes to improve public streets and 5 percent is allotted to the general fund.