Wausau cutting CVB budget
Tuesday, Feb 2The city of Wausau, Wis., is considering cutting funding to the Wausau/Central Wisconsin Convention & Visitors Bureau by $33,000 in 2010. The city typically gives the CVB $214,000 in taxes collected from hotel room rentals each year but is considering giving the organization only $181,000.
According to Jim Rosenberg, the Finance Committee chairman for the city, the proposed reduction is a reaction to the CVB withdrawing financial support of the Badger State Games and Wausau’s declining hotel room tax revenue. Under a contract with Wisconsin Sports Development Corporation, the CVB paid $76,000 for the rights to serve as the host city in 2010.
Darien Schaefer, executive director of the visitors bureau, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the games no longer generated enough revenue for local businesses to justify the financial commitment.
The city expects to collect $580,000 from its 8 percent room tax in 2010. Last year it collected $595,000. In previous years the city collected as much as $700,000. Participation for the events dropped from a peak of roughly 6,000 competitors to 4,300 in 2009.
When the popular youth hockey tournament was shifted to Milwaukee-area venues for 2010, Wausau lost the large share of hotel room bookings the family-centered event, with 28 teams and 609 players, typically generates.
“Financially, it didn’t make sense to spend room tax dollars on events that don’t generate room tax dollars,” says William Duncanson, director of the Marathon County Department of Parks, Forestry.
