The Puyallup Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (LTAC) met on August 27, 2025, at 9:00 AM in City Hall to review and allocate 2026 lodging tax revenue. The committee faced a $144,000 shortfall between $857,000 in requests and $713,000 in available funds. After presentations and deliberation, the committee adopted a 5.3% across-the-board reduction from 2025 award levels, including a pro‑rata allocation for a new applicant, the Master Gardeners Foundation.
City‑Initiated Proposals (Eric Johnson, Public Affairs Officer): The city requested funds for three projects: $100,000 for the "Puyallup Always in Season" tourism branding campaign; $35,000 to continue downtown street‑furniture replacements (benches, trash cans, bike racks); and $1.5 million for construction of the Meeker Festival Street project (converting a section of East Meeker into a pedestrian‑oriented street). The festival street project is expected to be fully funded if the LTAC allocation is approved. Councilmember Whitting noted that the project is tied to the redevelopment of the Cornforth Campbell lot, which includes 118 apartments (about 20% affordable), a food court, microbrewery, and 7–10 rowhouses.
Presentations by Applicant Organizations (in order):
Deliberation and Funding Decision: The committee discussed two approaches: algorithmic (proportional cut) vs. discretionary. Dean Burke advocated for an algorithmic approach to avoid “whimsical” cuts and to allow future strategic planning. Councilmember Whitting proposed using 2025 award levels as a baseline, then applying a uniform percentage reduction. After Burke’s $10,000 offer, the remaining shortfall was $38,000. The committee adopted a 5.3% reduction from each organization’s 2025 award, with the Master Gardeners receiving a pro‑rata reduction from their $22,011 request (resulting in $20,839.525). The motion passed unanimously (5 ayes, 0 nays).
Good morning, everyone. I appreciate everybody coming out today and all fresh shiny faces. We are lacking one of our of our uh committee members who's planning on being here online. So we're trying to get her online. So we're we'll uh delay any formal business until she arrives. Uh but in the meantime, let's go ahead and introduce ourselves for those that you don't know who you are. Uh would you like to start at that end, Kent. Okay. Good morning. Uh Dean Burke. Uh work from the president CEO of the visit to Coma Pierce County, where the destination marketing organization countywide, including POLUP, one of our great cities, and uh my second uh term here on the PLUP LTEC committee. So good morning. Good morning. I'm John Palmer, um president on the PL Downtown Main Street Association. Good morning, Alison Shaper. Um, President Zio at the Seminar PLU Chamber of Commerce, and this is my first LTAC committee. And I started one month after this um process last year. So this is new to me as well. I'm Ned Whitting. I'm a council member here in Puallop. Uh I got tapped to chair this meeting yesterday of about 10 o'clock, I think. So uh this is my first time at this activity too. Um Renee McLean, CEO of the Washington State Fair, and it's my first time. Uh good morning. I'm Tierra Rivers. Um I'm the general manager of the Holiday and Express here up on the Hill, here representing the Holiday and Express, the Fairfield, and the best Western Park Plaza. Um I'm a first-timer as well. And we are waiting for Tani Castro, who's the sales manager at Hampton Ian. So hopefully we'll have her online shortly. And Councilmember Whitting, it's my understanding that Miss Castro is actually on her way here now. So she should be a few minutes late, but she will be here. Okay, great. So just a little uh background on what we're going to try to achieve today. Um we uh have monies that are are derived from our uh local hotels from the lodging tax. And our are we have more expectations for that funds than we have funds available. So the purpose of this meeting is to whittle that down to uh so those two numbers meet. And just in terms of of the this the structure of this body is determined by state code, state statute. So and we're comprised of seven members, three of whom are contributors of uh the LTAC funds, hotels and the and the fair, and three that are recipients of the of the funds, and that's established by statute, and then uh I I represent the the city council. So we have one city council representative on the on the committee. And we had a situation this year where there might have been a perceived uh conflict of interest uh with the mayor. Uh so we uh he requested that I step in and avoid any perception of a conflict of interest. So uh that's why I'm here and I've had 24 hours of notice and and had to learn the rules and regulations and and uh go through my little package of stuff and sit in a council meeting last night, too. So I I plead not as prepared as I might like to be, but uh I'm sure we will get through this. Um so uh the uh I'm gonna delay public comment at this point. So let's jump on to the review of city initiated proposals. Eric, could you help us out with that? Are you you were gonna provide that, right? So this let me position this a little more to the 45% of our LTAC funds are are distributed by this are identified by this committee. The other 55% is distributed by the city council directly without input from this committee. So Eric's going to address the what the city council has decided to do with its share of the funds.