By Katie Northcott, News Director
At its meeting on Monday, June 8, the Tullahoma Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BOMA) directed Finance Director Sue Wilson to investigate the financial impact of giving both the Tullahoma Sports Council and South Jackson Performing Arts Center 12% of the city’s hotel/motel tax revenue.
The move would give both organizations the same amount of funding that the Tullahoma Area Chamber of Commerce receives from the hotel/motel tax.
“The Sports Council is directly responsible for more than 30,000 visitors to the City of Tullahoma during the last 12 months,” Sports Council member Scott Shasteen said. “We’re asking for a percentage of the hotel/motel tax to go to the Sports Council.”
Conversation surrounding Sports Council and Chamber funding was prompted by a motion made by Alderman Kurt Glick during the June 1 meeting of the BOMA to give half of the Chamber’s funding to the Sports Council. Glick’s motion failed 5-1.
Find more reporting on the first reading of Tullahoma’s FY27 budget here.
The FY27 budget passed on its first reading on June 1 and appeared on the agenda for the June 8 meeting of the BOMA for its second reading. Three members of the public appeared before the BOMA on June 8 to comment on the Chamber and Sports Council funding.
Shasteen advocated for the Sports Council to receive 12-15% of the hotel/motel tax. Beverly Lee, a member of the Chamber Board, and Hope Nunley, the Chamber’s Executive Director, spoke to the Chamber’s contribution to tourism in Tullahoma.
Nunley said that the Chamber employs three full-time tourism professionals, whose work has included establishing Visit Tullahoma on social media, facilitating marketing training, distributing the Visit Tullahoma magazine, and growing the Chamber’s membership to over 500 members.
“The Chamber is the destination marketing organization for the city and is creating visibility through different tourism efforts, but we are also a partner in economic development for the City of Tullahoma,” Nunley said.
Alderman Jerry Mathis made a motion to give the Sports Council 15% of the hotel/motel tax. During discussion of Mathis’s motion, Glick suggested that the Chamber, Sports Council, and Performing Arts Center each receive 12% of the hotel/motel tax revenue.
Wilson warned that moving around hotel/motel revenue could have unintended consequences.
“[If] you take it away from other places where it’s already allocated, you’re going to have to use reserves or cut something,” Wilson said.
The BOMA then directed Wilson to research the impact of Glick’s suggestion before unanimously passing (Alderman Bobbie Wilson absent) the FY27 budget as presented on its second reading. The BOMA will likely have a study session before the third and final reading of the budget to understand the implications of making changes to how the hotel/motel tax is allocated.
“We still have another reading. It sounds like we have some desire to do something here, but it might be nice to get our City Administrator back next week and get with Ms. Wilson and talk it through a little bit about what the other impacts would be,” Tullahoma Mayor Lynn Sebourn said.
City Administrator Jeff Damron was not present at the June 8 meeting. The next meeting of the BOMA is scheduled for Monday, June 22.
