Reduction in allocation will significantly affect the overall budget for the fairgrounds

An open letter to the San Juan County Council and the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee:

On Tuesday, June 8, 2010, the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (LTAC) presented their recommendations to the County Council for the 2011 Lodging Tax fund allocations. It was recommended by the LTAC that the San Juan County Fair Department receive $25,000. This sum is a reduction from past years’ allocation by $20,000 or 44 percent. The County Council approved the allocations.

This reduction in the allocation will significantly affect the overall budget for the fairgrounds and will have a greater potential economic impact including: reduction of availability of facilities for public use, increase in fees for facilities, increase in fair ticket prices, and reduction in fair programs.

The LTAC Master Plan, adopted by the County Council on Nov. 10, 2009 states on page 2, under Funding Philosophy:

LTAC will annually evaluate the institutions it has traditionally supported and pledges that – barring extraordinary circumstance – it will not dramatically decrease its support for these institutions without at least a year’s warning. Those institutions include:

County Parks
Community Theaters
Historical Museums
County Fair

The San Juan County Fair Board considers this reduction in funding to be “dramatic” and requests that the County Council and the LTAC explain their departure from the “pledge” to “traditional institutions” as stated in the Master Plan.

Sincerely,

San Juan County Fair Board:
Josephine Bangs, Chair
Brad Fincher
Dan Seaton
Sharalyn Lehman
Terry Evans
Sandy Wyllie-Echevveria

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