Rejecting a proposal from the county’s tourism board, the Porter County Council agreed Thursday that a tourism fund that supports other county venues will remain intact.

The Porter County Convention, Recreation and Visitors Commission had proposed eliminating the $89,100 “venue fund” in its 2010 budget, instead shifting the money for an expanded grant program and for website development.

The venue fund has been part of the PCCRVC’s budget for a number of years and provides promotional funding for the Porter County Parks Department, Memorial Opera House, Old Jail Museum and Expo Center.

The county council appeared unanimous in rejecting the PCCRVC’s proposal, though final approval of the tourism budget was tabled so that the final numbers could be reworked.

Several council members noted that they are trying to hold the line on general fund spending increases as much as possible. The PCCRVC’s budget is funded through the innkeeper’s tax, so if the tourism funding were eliminated, the property tax-supported general fund would have to pick up the slack for the county departments affected.

“This is absolutely the worst year for this,” said council member Dan Whitten, D-at large. He emphasized that he feels the PCCRVC is doing an outstanding job and that the rejection of its proposal should not be viewed as a negative.

Council member Sylvia Graham, D-at large, a former PCCRVC board member, said she has always viewed the parks, the Expo Center, Opera House and Jail Museum as positives for tourism, because they bring in visitors to the county. She said in order to keep the promotional funding in place, the other budgets would have to increase.

PCCRVC Executive Director Lorelei Weimer said her office has been getting more and more requests from cities and towns for funding assistance to promote their events. The intent of the shift was to make the PCCRVC’s grants program more competitive and allow more entities to share in the funding, she said.

She also noted that the county venues would still have been able to apply for the grant funds, as would other governmental and non-profit entities.

But council member Laura Blaney, D-at large, noted that one of the reasons given for the proposal to eliminate the venue fund was that the county venues have access to the County Economic Development Income Tax. But Blaney noted that cities and towns also have their own CEDIT dollars.

“Why should this fall on the county?” she asked.

Council President Robert Poparad, D-1st, said unlike other county departments, the PCCRVC has its own funding source that would allow it to build up reserves if desired.

Another budget up for review at Thursday’s budget hearing was for the Porter County Parks Department. The review began with an introduction of most of the park’s full-time and part-time staff.

The parks budget was unanimously approved as submitted for $483,027, which actually is a $500 decrease over this year’s.

Conover said if the council wanted to cut the park’s budget, the question would become: “Do we want a park system or don’t we?”

Posted 8/14/2009