Applicants make A-Tax requests
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
The Darlington County Accommodations Tax Committee convened its second meeting of 2017 on March 30 to hear funding requests for the 2017/18 fiscal year.
The Accommodations Tax Committee is responsible for dispersing a $55,000 funding pool to applicants whose venues and events increase local tourism and overnight hotel stays. The accommodations tax pool comes from the state-mandated two-percent tax on hotel and motel stays, which is collected by the state and channeled back to counties and municipalities. These agencies then distribute accommodations tax monies to applicants who can demonstrably increase local tourism.
This year’s applicants and their funding requests are as follows:
Black Creek Arts Council RenoFest: $15,000
Butler Heritage Foundation / Butler Week: $12,000
City of Darlington / Williamson Park 5K: $2,500
Darlington Chamber of Commerce / Freedom Fest: $10,000
Darlington County Cultural Realism Complex / Total Package: $52,000
Darlington Downtown Revitalization / Taste of Darlington: $2,500
Darlington Downtown Revitalization / Yam Jam: $5,000
EdVenture, Inc. / EdVenture Hartsville Satellite: $5,000
Florence CVB / Darlington Car Hauler Parade: $5,000
Hartsville Community Center Bldg. Comm/Center Theater: $12,600
Hartsville Community Dev. Foundation / Ag+Art Tour: $1,000
Hartsville Community Organization / Frets & Necks Fest: $12,500
Lamar Egg Scramble: $5,000
Pilot Club / Sweet Potato Festival: $4,000
SC African American Heritage Foundation: $7,875
SC Junior Golf Foundation / Players Championship: $7,500
Society Hill Catfish Festival: $3,000
Southeastern Bluegrass Association: $12,000
YMCA: $5,500
In total, these requests add up to $179,975, but the total A-tax money available this year only amounts to $55,000. Applicants who attended the March 30 meeting were allowed to address the committee and make a case for why their event or organization should receive funding.
Alvin Heatley spoke on behalf of Butler Heritage Foundation, explaining that Butler Week draws about 4,000 people to a series of events that includes dinners, dances, tailgates, parades, and basketball games.
“Out of that 4,000, we’ll probably have at least 600 who are tourists from 50 or more miles from Hartsville,” Heatley said.
Heatley said that attendance is tracked at some controlled events through wristbands, while visual estimates and headcounts are used at more freeform events such as the parade. Heatley said that any A-Tax monies issued will be used for promotion and advertising, adding that they mail out over 2,000 event reminders nationwide every year.
Holly Beaumier, representing the Darlington Car Hauler Parade, noted that A-Tax money would be used to fund marketing through television and newspaper advertising and promotional stuffers added to thousands of Southern 500 ticket mailings. She said event attendance figures from the South Carolina Highway Patrol estimated that about 30,000 people normally attend the events at the Florence Civic Center and the Darlington Public Square, including spectators along the parade route. Beaumier said that they added a race ticket giveaway to gauge tourist attendance last year, and more than half of registrants came from outside the Pee Dee region.
Kim Cranford said the Hartsville Community Center and Center Theater drew about 25,000 visitors last year, with an estimated 12,000 coming from over 50 miles away. Cranford said the theater’s new ticketing system gathers more accurate data about ticket buyers, including their home addresses. Also, Cranford said he walked through the crowd at this year’s RenoFest and asked random guests where they were from; he tallied 137 guests visiting from outside that 50 mile radius.
Rob Jordan, representing RenoFest, said the 2017 bluegrass festival was “the biggest one we’ve ever had…the motel owners and restaurants told us there’s no other event that puts people in their establishments like RenoFest has.” Attendance estimates hold around 6,000 for this three-day event, which draws musicians and music lovers from across the nation and, sometimes, from around the world. A-Tax funding for RenoFest goes toward advertising in national magazines and music-oriented publications.
Matt Frye said the SC Junior Golf Foundation Players Championship “has grown into one of the biggest junior golf events in South Carolina.” Frye said the three-day tournament’s annual draw of 600 people includes more than 400 tourists – tracked by event registration – who drive more than 50 miles to attend.
Committee members will consider these and other requests, evaluate supporting documentation regarding tourism impact, and make their funding recommendations, which will then be forwarded to Darlington County Council for final approval.
Officers were also elected at this March 30 meeting. By unanimous consent, the committee re-elected Joey Saleeby and chairman and named David McFarland vice chair. The committee includes members Joyce Wingate, Steve Tinney, Scotty Jeffords, Carol Bishop, and Hannah Stanley. Tinney and Bishop were not in attendance at this meeting.
The Darlington County Accommodations Tax Committee will meet once more to make their funding recommendations. This meeting will take place at 6 p.m. April 4 at the Courthouse Annex, located at 1625 Harry Byrd Hwy in Darlington.