Amador County – The Amador County Board of Supervisors approved $42,000 in tourism spending for three local organizations on Tuesday, with the stipulation that the groups will have to come back to the board to report how funds are being spent.

The board approved a $25,000 request for funds by the Amador Council of Tourism, a request for $15,000 by the Amador County Chamber of Commerce, and a request for $2,200 by the Amador County Film Commission.

Supervisor Richard Forster moved that whatever was not funded in the budget be taken out of the contingency fund. The board discussed the original budget of about $50,000, which was reduced by former Chief Administrative Officer Terry Daly.

The supervisors passed the requests unanimously. Supervisor John Plasse noted that the funds were coming from the county Transient Occupancy Tax, with totaled $86,000 in the unincorporated areas of the county. He said cities in the county generated $600,000 in their TOT taxes.

Plasse said the county is putting 50 percent of its TOT funds into promoting tourism, and “maybe the cities should do that too?”

Forster said he wanted to see the money used in the best way possible for the “promotion of tourism and bringing people to the county.”

He said the $25,000 was budgeted by Daly, but he wanted to “keep the business of tourism rolling in Amador County,” because tourist dollars are spent on lodging and retail. He said they should use some of that tax money to fund ACT, the Chamber and the Film Commission.

Forster said if supervisors “wanted to split it five ways,” they could all put in some of their district discretionary funds. He said it “should pay dividends by bringing tax dollars back into the county.”

He also requested a “full accounting of the use of the funds.” Plasse said he thought the requests for funding in the future should come with a list of proposed uses of funds.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.