Tourist Commission adopts budget for fiscal year 2018

CROWLEY - For the first time in a while the Acadia Parish Tourist Commission is budgeting a surplus for the coming fiscal year.
The commission had, for the past few years, been paying an annual note of $100,000-plus for the purchase of seven acres of property adjacent to the Tourist Information Offices on Tower Road at Interstate 10.
“We paid the last note last year,” explained Paul Broussard, treasurer. “We’d been at kind of break-even in recent years, but it looks like this year we could have a little surplus.”
The commission, which started in 1986 with an annual budget of $2,400, anticipates revenues of about $250,000 in fiscal 2018, with expenditures expected to total around $171,000.
Included in the expenditures is $63,000 in advertising to promote Acadia Parish activities statewide and regionally.
The remainder of the expenses are in operations of the facility, conventions, building maintenance, utilities, etc., according to Broussard.
For the benefit of new commissioner Dana Frey, who was appointed by Iota Mayor Julia “Mariette” Granger to replace Delores Venable, who resigned for health issues, Broussard explained that the commission is funded primarily through a 4 percent Hotel Occupancy Tax collected by hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, campgrounds, etc., in the parish.
“There is a little bit of rebate from the state — Enterprise Tax — that we also get,” he added.
In other business, Gwen Hanks, director, reported that “business is up” at the Tourist Information Office.
“It’s been good,” she said, referring to the number of “walk-ins” at the office during the last month. “Plus, Rice Festival brought in a lot of people — all our hotels were full.”
The next meeting of the Tourist Commission will be the annual Christmas Brunch on Dec. 14.