Gurnee may lend financial hand to visitors bureau
Lake County's convention and visitors bureau might receive early dues payments from Gurnee to help cover $1 million in expected state funding that has yet to arrive, officials said.
Gurnee Trustee Cheryl Ross, during an informal village board session Monday night, addressed how the state's budget impasse is affecting Visit Lake County. Ross is Gurnee's representative on the tourism organization's board.
"(Visit Lake County President Maureen Riedy) has cut back as much as possible," Ross said. "Cut back one employee, got the landlord to reduce the rent until the state grant comes through, stopped travel to conferences, and things like that. But it's about to hurt the plans for the summer marketing."
Village board members tentatively agreed Gurnee should make early payments from local hotel-motel tax receipts that already have been budgeted for Visit Lake County through April 30. Trustees are expected to take up the issue again before a formal vote in January.
Gurnee already has shipped about $88,000 of $142,000 set aside for the agency for the 2015-16 budget year, Village Administrator Patrick Muetz said, meaning the early payments would come from whatever is left.
He said Gurnee will make a couple of payments to the tourism agency before the issue resurfaces in January, so the village's advance mostly likely would be about $30,000. Gurnee wouldn't provide another payment until the new budget starts May 1, he added.
"Hopefully, this buys them enough time so that the state's got their situation straightened out and they can continue forward," he said.
Riedy said some winter promotions have been scrapped because the agency has yet to receive the $1 million that's been on hold from the state since July. Other Lake County communities might join Gurnee in making early dues payments to help the visitors bureau, she said.
"We think we'll be OK for a couple of months," Riedy said. "We've cut down our expenses so much that we're able to survive a little bit more than we initially thought. It's possible that we might be good through January or February."
Local tourism bureaus receive a cut of hotel occupancy taxes from the Illinois Office of Tourism. The state requires that money be spent on sales and marketing initiatives to boost tourism and overnight stays.
Visit Lake County reported that it had secured 43 groups for Gurnee that used 2,517 hotel rooms in the village this year, with an estimated economic benefit of $917,000.
Riedy said Visit Lake County, which has seven employees, isn't alone in trying to get by while waiting for the state funding. Schaumburg-based Meet Chicago Northwest, Oak Brook-based DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau and Visit Lake County are owed a combined $2 million or so in state funding, officials from the agencies said.