By Charlotte Caldwell
SIDNEY — The Sidney Lodging Tax Committee held its last meeting ever on March 21 and discussed what to do with unspent funds from a project.
Lodging tax dollars in previous years have gone to a fund for a sculpture grouping at Schultz’s Battery Park. Due to costs rising to an unattainable amount to make the sculpture, the sculpture will no longer be commissioned. From 2017 to 2023, $100,000 in lodging tax dollars went to the fund. The committee voted to unencumber the funds and put them into the city’s general fund.
The committee also approved city staff’s suggestion to amend Codified Ordinance Chapter 143 to include with City Council’s approval, any encumbered, but unspent dollars older than three years be returned to the community service fund as part of the annual budget review process for the next year.
In the end, the committee decided to disband to eliminate a step for city staff. The staff will still ask organizations for proposals for funds and there will still be rules on which organizations and projects are eligible to receive funds, then the staff will decide how to allocate funds and present it to the City Council for approval.
