The management of general tourism dollars from Lodging Tax Funds is staying with the Shelton Mason County Chamber of Commerce. Every year, Mason County accepts applications for use of these funds generated by Lodging Taxes that will help attract tourists to the County. These funds are awarded to organizations that hold events that draw people in from outside the County. A large part of those funds are used for general tourism and items such as brochures and advertising used to spotlight Mason County as a destination. For the past few years, those dollars went to a joint tourism effort by the North Mason and Shelton Mason County Chambers of Commerce. This year, the Shelton Chamber alone applied for those funds as did Olympic Broadcasting. The Chamber’s request was for the usually $95,000 which included a $10,000 administrative fee. Olympic Broadcasting, which owns KMAS Radio, applied for $36,000 to administer or manage the tourism budget. The Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (L-TAC) recommended that Olympic Broadcasting be awarded the funds instead of the Chamber. In January, the Mason County Commissioners sent the applications back to the L-TAC and allowed other entities to also apply. Olympic submitted another application, one with more detail while the Chamber clarified its application. However, those applications were NOT reviewed by the L-TAC. There was about 30 minutes of discussion Tuesday morning that included hearing from officials with both organizations and the public.
After testimony, the Commissioners, who based their decisions on the original applications, elected to award the general tourism management to the Shelton Mason County Chamber of Commerce saying the Chamber is more suited to be in charge of tourism.
The Lodging Tax Funds awarded to the Chamber is $95,000. The Commissioners did suggestion that the Chamber contract with Olympic Broadcasting for some of the tourism items.