A portion of the $10,000 in local option tax funds the Hailey Chamber of Commerce has received from Hailey has been used for upgrading the group's Web site and for the printing of 5,000 brochures to promote the city.
At a city meeting Monday, Hailey Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Julie Oxarango-Ingram discussed this and other aspects of the chamber's LOT spending plan for Hailey city officials.
Looking ahead, Oxarango-Ingram said the chamber hopes to hire an additional full-time staff person at some point to handle increasing workloads.
"I'm still the one man band he (former Executive Director Jim Spinelli) was," she said.
In an appeal to the Hailey officials Monday, Oxarango-Ingram said the chamber still isn't in the position to hire the extra staff member due to budget constraints.
"We don't really have the dollars," she said.
Throughout her past two months at the chamber, Oxarango-Ingram said she's been visiting with Hailey business owners to discuss their needs and concerns.
"I'd like to work a little more advocating for those businesses," she said.
Business owners in the city are concerned about employee retention issues and are looking for the city's help, Oxarango-Ingram said.
"They are asking for local government to get together with them," she said.
Since Hailey voters approved the LOT on May 23, 2006, the tax pumped a total of $164,755 into Hailey coffers through the end of November, city reports show. July was the first month the city began to require businesses to collect taxes under the new law.
Based on figures provided by the city for the month of November, LOT returns on lodging and car rental sales, liquor-by-the-drink and restaurant food totals $18,443. While the returns are far below August's total revenue of $47,831, this is to be expected, as November is typically a slower month for Wood River Valley tourism.
As part of their pitch to city voters last spring, Hailey officials said a portion of the funds generated by the LOT would be given to the Hailey Chamber of Commerce to be used to promote the city and its businesses.
