(Okoboji)– Lakes Area cities have suspected a drop in tourism because of the pandemic would have a negative impact on motel/hotel tax revenue they receive. And now they’re starting to find out by how much. Okoboji City Administrator Michael Meyers told the city council Tuesday night that city is going to take a substantial hit…
“We received this last quarter about 70 percent of what we normally receive, which is a variance of about $35,000 for that one quarter. Over the last three quarters we’re down about 40 percent of what we normally realize over that time frame, which is a difference of $74,000 compared to what we would expect to bring in as a Motel/Hotel Tax revenue.”
He says it likely is going to make for even more challenges as the city puts together its budget for the upcoming fiscal year…
“Obviously that affects how we move forward from a budgetary perspective now that we know what our true impact is.”
Governmental entities will soon begin the process of working on their budgets for the upcoming fiscal year.
In other business, the council voted to proceed with the issuance of bonds to re-finance a little more than $4 million in existing debt, along with issuing $3.6 million in new bonds for the Lakeshore Drive project. The council approved the measures following public hearings on them.
