By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
When the City of Burlington first instituted a room tax with the opening of the Hampton Inn, part of the discussion was just how much that room tax should be.
After setting it low – just 3 percent, compared to what was often 6-8 percent – the City Council has a proposal ahead of it now to raise its room tax to 6 percent.
The majority of the money – 70 percent – would go to two entities to promote tourism to Burlington: the Burlington Area Chamber of Commerce and Real Racine.
With the Burlington chamber receiving $37,000 last year from the room tax, City Administrator Kevin Lahner wants to expand the tax and get more bang for its buck.
“Really, what we’re trying to do is maximize (the room tax dollars,” said Lahner.
By state law, 70 percent of that room tax must be put back into the community in ways that promote tourism. The expected increase in dollars would be $47,000, with about $33,000 coming back to spend on tourism.
Lahner is suggesting that 17 percent of that money would go to Real Racine, which serves as the Racine County Visitors and Convention Bureau.
David Blank of Real Racine was on hand at Tuesday night’s council meeting, and said that sports events, promotion and even conventions can be put on the calendar – and help put people into hotel rooms for overnight stays.
“We try to bring in people and their money,” he said.
Jeff Van Lysal, the manager of the Hampton, said he had spent time attending the Real Racine meetings, and had nothing but praise for their work.
“They do great things,” Van Lysal said. “I think they can work very well in conjunction with the chamber.” The only real caution the council had was wanting to rate the effectiveness of not just Real Racine, but also the Chamber of Commerce.
“I want to make sure if we increase the room tax, we see some real benefit,” said Alderman Tom Vos.
Lahner had no objections, but said the city would have to develop something to track the progress.
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