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2 new hotels expected to boost Miami County’s hotel-motel tax

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By Nancy Bowman, Contributing Writer Updated 11:08 AM Monday, November 16, 2009

TROY — Two new hotels that began welcoming guests during the past year are expected to help boost Miami County’s hotel-motel tax by an estimated $13,000 next year.

Money generated by the 3 percent tax provides the bulk of the funding each year for the county Visitors and Convention Bureau whose offices are in downtown Troy. The bureau’s budget for 2010 is just shy of $300,000.

The Holiday Inn Express at Interstate 75 and West Main Street in Tipp City and the Comfort Suites north of West Main Street and west of I-75 in Troy both opened around mid-2009.

Diana Thompson, bureau director, told the county commissioners recently the 2010 budget figures, including the projected $13,000 increase in the tax, are conservative.

The bureau’s board has not factored in any staff pay increases in 2010, opting to see how revenues look as next year progresses, Thompson said. A $1,500 ending balance is projected for Dec. 31, 2010.

Commissioner Ron Widener questioned the size of that balance, asking if the board considered $1,500 a “tight balance.”

Thompson said it is the bureau’s job “to spend the money to promote the area.” However, she added, that balance was for the operating budget, and did not include the bureau’s $130,000 in unencumbered funds.

In three of the last four years, the hotel-motel tax brought in more than budgeted. The exception was 2008, when $281,000 was budgeted and $280,438 generated by the tax.