The municipality is considering transferring money to the Tourism Authority

April 20 – Muskogee Tourism Authority could get a $455,000 boost from the city for capital projects and promotion.

The Muskogee City Council will consider transferring $455,000 from the city hotel/motel tax fund to the authority during its regular meeting Monday at 5:30 p.m.

Mayor Patrick Cale said he wants the Tourism Authority to manage the funds.

“They have experts on the board, leading citizens on the board who are able (or maybe even more able) to make decisions about what to fund; the board is there to help,” Cale said. “We don’t believe we should micromanage.”

Councilmember Jaime Stout, who is making the proposal, said she wants the money to be used for large-scale tourism promotion and tourism-related capital projects.

She said that under her proposal, the money should not be used for current expenses, operating costs or salaries.

Instead, the money would fund one-time needs such as signage updates, visitor center accessibility and website overhauls, she said.

Stout said the money could fund an overhaul of existing kiosk technology, which has been in use for nearly a decade.

Cale said funds can also be used to fundraise for new events.

“If we have a big event, or we have Bass Pro people coming through, we might have to recruit some people to run that event,” he said.

Stout said the city has collected more than $750,000 in surplus from the hotel/motel tax.

“In January 2011, the citizens of Muskogee voted to increase the hotel and motel lodging tax from 3% to 8% for conventions and tourism in Muskogee,” she said. “Section 74-130 of that ordinance states: ‘All taxes collected under the provisions of this article shall be reserved and used solely for the purpose of encouraging, promoting and promoting the convention and tourism development of the city to improve.'”

According to an agenda packet for Monday’s council meeting, the proposal also directs city staff to prepare a supplemental document to further define the limitations on the transferred funds.