Tourism board presents preliminary budget

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The Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board (PSATB), which presented its preliminary 2016 budget to the Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday and will do the same today for the Pagosa Springs Town Council, fielded a number of requests for funding at its regular meeting last week.

According to the preliminary budget, the PSATB will collect $540,000 worth of lodgers’ tax from lodging properties within the town, $85,000 from the county, a $45,000 grant from the Colorado Tourism Office and $1,500 from the Pagosa Springs Visitor Center. With $158,626 expected to remain from this year’s budget, the PSATB will have a total of $830,126 for next year.

Of this, $180,319 will go to cover salaries and related expenses for the four people that comprise the tourism staff, $320,000 will be used for external marketing campaigns, $57,000 will go toward special events, $55,000 will be for infrastructure and $111,750 will go towards operations related to the Visitor Center.

With $8,000 for training and travel, $10,000 for fireworks and $12,500 for a contract with MuniRevs (a company that finds lodging establishments who aren’t paying their taxes), PSATB’s total expenditures next year will be $754,569, leaving it with $75,558 in reserves.

At last week’s meeting, John Egan, the transportation director for Archuleta County’s Mountain Express transit system, was the first to make a funding request.

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