The City of Dryden is still holding off on making a decision on how to spend proceeds from the Municipal Accommodation Tax.
The 4% tax on visitors staying in hotels and motels went into effect in January 2020.
The money was originally earmarked for Waterfront Development planning but other ideas have surfaced including trail development, capital upgrades, lights at Cooper Park and improvements to the water slide at the Pool.
Councillor John Carlucci believes it’s too early to make a decision.
Carlucci says they are just a few weeks into the 2021 budget and he would like to wait and see what comes down with COVID developments.
He is suggesting waiting a couple of months to make a decision.
Mayor Greg Wilson agrees.
“It’s like were kind of in a rabbit hole. Government’s are in a rabbit hole. It’s going to be tough to get out of this. So do we just keep going into lockdown after lockdown with various strains that hit us or do senior levels of government take a change of course in how they deal with this and what are the ramifications to the municipality.”
Councillor Michelle Price says a number of good ideas are on the table but there is too much uncertainty right now.
“We need to sit down again in a Master Plan Steering Committee and really look at what are the priorities and not act too fast not knowing what our future’s going to be like with COVID.”
Councillor Norm Bush adds he’s not very comfortable making any decisions now on our future.
Bush would also like the Committee to sit down and take a close look at priorities.
According to Treasurer Steven Lansdell-Roll as of the end of November 2020, the City’s share of MAT funds collected was roughly $139,160.
That doesn’t include December 2020 MAT funds and other funds.
That money is being used to offset Operating/Capital expenditures.
With a clean slate in 2021, Lansdell-Roll says it’s not clear how much money they will see.
“Non-COVID we anticipated generating around $200,000 in Municipal Accommodation Tax revenue. We did not achieve that in 2020 due to the COVID travel restrictions.”
He adds “Hopefully our local accommodators are not as impacted this coming Summer season but already we’ve lost a lot of revenues due to hockey tournaments and things of that nature that are not going to happen.”
Lansdell-Roll says “I do anticipate that we will not hit those targets once again in 2021. I don’t think that we could anticipate the full $200,000 being available.”
In a staff report to Council options for the MAT include:
1. Status Quo: Continue to allocate net MAT proceeds to the Waterfront Development Reserve Fund
2. Expand 2021 Capital Plan and add projects currently “below the line”
-Pedestrian Overpass Exterior Maintenance
-Library HVAC Replacement
-Storm Sewer Replacement
-Underpass Retaining Wall Parging
-Trackless-Boom Flail Mower Attachment
-Underpass Guiderail Replacement
3. Trail Development: developing a trails/pathways/bridges feasibility study
4. Other Council suggestions
