Columbia city manager says claims of taxpayer money misuse are “inaccurate”

After hoteliers with the Columbia Hospitality Association accused the city of misusing taxpayer money, city manager Mike Matthes is speaking out against claims, he said, are not “factually correct.”

“There are people that believe that they can make you so afraid of the establishment and so distrustful that you’ll vote no because they don’t want something,” said Matthes.

Hoteliers told ABC17 News that the city used almost $140,000 from the Convention and Visitors Bureau budget to pay for ballot costs, such as paying for the cost of the poll workers.

Teri Weise with the Holiday Inn Executive Center, said the CHA does not believe using the money to pay for a ballot that features Proposition 1, a ballot measure that would raise the city’s lodging tax from 4 to 5 percent (about $1 extra on a guest’s hotel bill), is a proper use for the funds.

“They’re not tourism expenditures,” she said.

Matthes said many would disagree, and the airport is a tourism and economic boost to the city.

“It’s totally appropriate to have a tourism fund pay for a tourism ballot, I don’t understand why anyone would think that’s not appropriate,” said Matthes. “I don’t know what else the airport can be called but a tourism impact.”

According to a 2012 Missouri Department of Transportation economic impact study on the benefits from aviation, the Columbia Regional Airport provides 745 jobs and pays out about $27 million for payroll.

The total financial output, which MoDOT said measures the value of goods, services, and capital expenditures, comes in just over $87 million.

The CHA also claimed the city leaders amended the city lodging tax ordinance to include the words “economic development,”thus making the current 4 percent a “slush fund” for anything the city could decide was economic development.

They said this was in direct violation of a voter approved 2 percent tax increase in 1999.

“On their own in 2012, the politicians decided they knew more than the people of Columbia and they changed the ordinance from the ballot issue, which is ethically wrong,” said Ed Baker, the executive vice president at the Holiday Inn Executive Center.

Matthes said this is also an inaccurate claim, and that the CHA was equating the 1999 ballot with 2012 council action that couldn’t be more different.

“The confusion comes, on their part, because there’s two funding sources in the Convention and Visitors Bureau,” said Matthes. “One of them is the ballot, but there’s another source that pre-dates the ballot. That does not have the same restrictions the ballot does, so when council took an action, they took an action to amend the pre-ballot language, not the ballot.”

According to the city council meeting minutes from September 4, the city council discussed the amendment and passed it unanimously.

The minutes show that Matthes said he discussed the amendment at length with the Convention and Visitors Advisory Board and Amy Schneider, the director of the CVB, said “the hotels were notified by e-mail when Mr. Matthes made his presentation to the Convention and Visitors Advisory Board.”

Weise said she received that email and passed it along to ABC17 News.

She said the amendment change was not mentioned in the email. You can find the emailhere.

According to the city council minutes, Matthes said “his sense was that they [hoteliers] were somewhat concerned until they learned there would not be a cut to the funding of the Convention and Visitors Bureau. They would just share the natural growth in that fund with the Regional Economic Developing, Inc, who also contributed to room nights.”

Weise sits on the Convention and Visitors Bureau Advisory Board and she provided theminutes from meetingon July, 2012 where Matthes discussed transferring funds to REDI.

“He talks about how he has access to the original 2 percent and why, but he doesn’t mention that he about to modify the ordinance to include economic development?” Weise said in an email Thursday.

Megan McConachie, the marketing and communications manager at the Convention and Visitors Bureau, confirmed Thursday that there are two funding sources within the same lodging tax.

She said the lodging tax in Columbia was originally at 2 percent. In 1999, voters approved a 2 percent raise.

According to McConachie, the original 2 percent is what was amended in 2012 by council. The voter approved 2 percent hike has not been touched by the economic development amendment.

The Hancock Amendment, passed by Missouri Legislature in 1980, makes it necessary for voters to approve any lodging tax hikes. Matthes said this means that amendment didn’t change a voter approved tax.

“There are two sources of funding for the CVB. The ballot created one, and before the Hancock Amendment required votes on taxes, the council created the other,” said Matthes. “They amended their original action, not the ballot.”

McConachie said there have been no problems with funding cuts as a direct result of adding economic development to the ordinance.

Matthes said the city is prepared to use that money responsibly should the tax increase pass.

“The mayor asked this very question and to give people peace of mind, we have a policy resolution that he called for right after the same agenda where they put this on the ballot,” said Matthes. “This money must be used for the airport, no other purpose.”

Mayor Brian Treece requested a sunset of the tax as well so if the terminal is paid off before 23 years, the lodging tax will go back down to 4 percent.

“It’s all a bit of smoke and mirrors trying to misdirect people and purposely misstating facts they know aren’t true,” said Matthes.

Voters head to the polls on Proposition 1 on Aug. 2.