GRANTS, NM – The Lodgers’ Tax Board held a special meeting to discuss Lodgers’ Tax Awards at the May 9, Special City Council Meeting where the council tabled multiple Lodgers’ Tax Award recommendations due to a lack of documentation from the organizations.
The Lodgers’ Tax Board discussed the Lodgers’ Tax Awards at the May 9, Special City Council Meeting. Aaron Dean said, “The one thing I have to say about the meeting is that if they are going to have a Lodgers’ Tax Board and then they have a City Council that goes against it without legitimate reason, why do we need a board?” Kade Elkins said, “The problem that I have is that we have a board that consists of business people and Lodgers’ from the city and a lot of people that have been on this board for a long time, that understand how these things work and understand what organizations bring people into town and what doesn’t. Now if we make a recommendation, it should carry some weight with city council. In this case it did not, it was like we were there for I guess just to stand up in front of city council, I don’t know. That to me is a problem, when you have somebody in city council that doesn’t understand those types of things and is not an expert in Lodging in this city as far as I know… That’s a problem when they feel that they know more than this board.” Dean said, “My main concern is why should we waste our time, if it’s not going to do any good.”
The Lodgers’ Tax board is given a specific amount of Lodgers’ Tax that they can divide up amongst the multiple organizations requesting Lodgers’ Tax. Elkins said, “We go to city council and all of a sudden, it’s just like free-for-all, ‘oh, no those people deserve every bit that they asked for’… You have to hit the number that we were given, and you’re jumping over that number right there as soon as you do that. Unless, you were going to go back and cut one of the other organizations that we suggested as a certain amount.” Elkins said why would they waste their time making the recommendations for the organizations if the city council could turn around and approve them for a larger amount. Elkins said, “My question is, what happens if we’re given $350,000, say they give an extra $10,000 to somebody, so we’re at $360,000, where does that money come from?” City Treasurer Victor Villalo- bos said that if that was the case than those extra funds would have to be taken out of the city’s general fund.
Elkins said the only other concern that he has now is that the Grants Rodeo Association’s Lodgers’ Tax Funding was approved even without the proper documentation that some of the other organizations were tabled without that documentation. Elkins said, “It was pretty unfair that they got approved, without the same paperwork that, say the chamber, needed or anybody else needed that got tabled. What’s the recourse there?” He said that the elected officials of the councils need to understand what the Lodgers’ Tax board, what documentation they need beforehand, and they need to be consistent. Elkins said that he believes that the profit and loss statements that the council was requesting from each organization should not hold that much weight because anyone can make a profit and loss statement and make it look good. He said, “At the end of the day, what matters most to this board and should matter most to city council is the actual people that the organizations bring in… That carries more weight than a profit and loss statement.” Elkins also said that in the future they will look at allowing the city councilors to sit in Lodgers’ Tax Board meetings, with a possibility of a quorum, to listen to organizations making their presentations and ask questions.
Elkins also briefly made some comments regarding the situation between Councilor Beverly Michael and previous Executive Director of the Grants-Cibola County Chamber of Commerce Donald Jaramillo. Elkins said, “I think it needs to be said though that I think it’s not just me, obviously Aaron and there was probably a lot of people in the audience and anybody on Facebook that night probably saw that as an attack on a person to person because of petty things that are personal. That’s the way I see it... I don’t know for sure.”