Before it heads to the Lake County Council, the South Shore Visitors and Convention Authority board approved the organization’s proposed budget and salaries at its monthly meeting.
Both resolutions were approved unanimously by the 10 present board members at Thursday’s meeting.
Nicole Wolverton, the SSCVA’s chief financial officer, presented the budget Thursday, which has a total proposal of $6,259,185. The proposed budget is a $355,000 reduction from the approved 2025 budget, Wolverton said, which was a $33,346 increase from 2024’s approved budget.
“The budget reduction this year is just reflective of our downtick in innkeeper’s tax,” Wolverton said. “We just want to be conservative in collections, as well as some additional expenses that we’ve paid for out here. We just wanted to make sure that we have healthy revenues and that our reserves, going forward, are in good shape.”
Wolverton also presented innkeeper tax numbers at Thursday’s meeting, saying that the SSCVA had received $34,000 more in September than they had the previous year, which she said was a “record year” for the organization.
Year-to-date, the SSCVA is down about $49,000 for collections, Wolverton said.
“We still have several summer months here in the end to collect, so (I’m hopeful that) we’ll see an increase like we did last year as well, which would be great for our budget as well,” Wolverton said.
SSCVA CEO Phil Taillon said the increased innkeeper’s tax numbers were “good news” at Thursday’s meeting.
“It’s kind of been a rollercoaster this year with innkeepers (tax numbers), but we’re doing pretty well, especially with tourism,” Taillon said. “Across the country, (tourism numbers) are kind of up and down right now for a lot of different reasons, but we’re doing pretty well in Northwest Indiana.”
The SSCVA board also approved a resolution that defines the bi-weekly salaries for organization employees, including Taillon, who will receive a minimum of $5,200 and a maximum of $8,100 every two weeks.
In the SSCVA budget, Wolverton created a new fund for the Gary Air Show, which has a proposed estimate of $550,000, according to budget papers. In July, the board announced that the SSCVA would fully pay for the air show, according to Post-Tribune archives, with help from Lake County Commissioner Kyle Allen Jr., D-1, who put $25,000 toward the show.
The budget had reductions in marketing incentives, utilities, phone and internet and maintenance contracts, Wolverton said. They also re-evaluated sponsorships and memberships, she added.
“We’re only doing any memberships that we feel directly correlate with our organization and future,” Wolverton said. “We also kind of took a step back with some of the sponsorships we’ve done, whether it’s reducing the tier of the sponsorship or not doing as much as we’ve done previously.”
mwilkins@chicagotribune.com
