By: Gary J. Groman, a.k.a. The Ole Seagull
In the game of Tourism Poker, it appears that the “Table Rock Lake Area Chamber of Commerce (TRLACC) wants to win $200,000 from the Missouri Division of Tourism without having the ante or the money to play the hand. Instead, they would have the Branson Lakes Area Tourism Community Enhancement District (TCED) provide $400,000 to fund their game with the Missouri Division of Tourism.
As is the case with any game, it is important to have the terminology straight. What is now called the Table Rock Lake Area Chamber of Commerce (TRLACC) was, until recently, commonly referred to as the Kimberling City Chamber of Commerce. A Google Search on Feb. 8 for the terms “Table Rock Lake Area Chamber of Commerce” came up with a top listing of “Table Rock Lake Chamber of Commerce (Kimberling City Area)” with link to the TRACC website which shows its address as “14226 State Hwy 13
Kimberling City, MO 65686.”
The Branson Lakes Area Tourism Community Enhancement District (TCED) is a “body corporate and politic of the state,” established by law, and covers a specified area that was required to be described “by metes and bounds, streets or other sufficiently specific description” when the TCED was established by the Taney County Commission. The official map of the TCED indicates that the vast majority of Stone Country, including Kimberling City, Branson West, Cape Fair, Talking Rocks, etc. is not within the TCED.
After the TCED was set up, and two elections later, the voters within the TCED anted up with a retail tourism tax on themselves. Specifically, they voted to impose a one percent retail sales tax on themselves for the “the purpose of promoting tourism in the district.” Oh, has it been mentioned that the vast majority of Stone Country, including Kimberling City, Branson West, Cape Fair, Talking Rocks, etc. is not within the TCED?
At this point it’s probably appropriate to mention that, unlike what Taney County did, neither Stone County nor Kimberling City, although they could have, even attempted to establish a Tourism Community Enhancement District. Even worse, the Stone County Commission stood idly by and did nothing while the Taney County Commission established a TCED and encroached into a small area of Stone County including Indian Point and Silver Dollar City.
Businesses within the TCED have been collecting and remitting the TCED Tourism tax for about two years and residents, and others, shopping within the TECD, have been paying it for a like period. The TCED Board has entered into an agreement with the Branson Lakes Area Convention and Visitor Bureau (CVB) to conduct and administer functions such as public relations, sales, and marketing of tourism on behalf of the district. The statute authorizing the TCED requires that “Such marketing, advertising, and promotional activities shall be developed into a comprehensive marketing plan, for the benefit of the district.”
Now along comes the Table Rock Lake Area Chamber of Commerce (TRLACC) and the the residents and businesses it represents, who have chosen not to pay for their own tourism marketing, in an effort to, you guessed it, get free money from the Missouri Division of Tourism without having to ante up. Instead, they are proposing that the Board of the TCED ante up the $400,000.00 they need so that they can get the $200,000 in free money from the state which they will then give back to the TCED.
Some might say, “The money might be free to TRLACC because they are not the ones paying the ante but it’s certainly not free to the TCED, it will cost them $200,000.” Others might ask, “How much media and advertising can be brought for $400,000 to promote tourism within the TCED.” Still others might ask, “How effective and comprehensive is a marketing plan that has the flexibility to be gerrymandered in a manner that would permit something like this to happen in the manner that it is?
Why some might even say, “Surely the TCED board wouldn’t even consider something like this?” Oh, they’re more than considering it.
At their last meeting the board passed a motion directing the Board’s president to “write a letter to the Table Rock Lake Area Chamber of Commerce that the board is interested in encouraging the Branson CVB to subcontract with the Table Rock Lake Area Chamber of Commerce to obtain the $200,000 funding through the Missouri Department of Tourism.” For that to happen, $400,000 of TCED marketing funds that are supposed to be used to promote tourism in the district will be funneled to the Table Rock Lake Area Chamber of Commerce through the Branson Lakes Area CVB.
See related news article entitled: "$200,000 in Branson tourism tax funds might be used to market Stone County"
