Good morning.

I

am waiting a couple more minutes.

I do see a couple people in the room, but um I'm gonna wait just a couple more minutes before we get started.

So

if you can't hear me, go ahead and put something in the chat.

But otherwise hang tight and we'll start

in just just about one minute.

All right.

Well, welcome

to the 2027 lodging tax grant technical assistance meeting.

My name is Sarah Farr.

I am the accounting and finance program manager here at the City of Spokane Valley.

And uh with me is Sarah Maddox, uh, the accountant who works on grant programs alongside me.

And so we'll go ahead and get started with this today.

Today we're just going to go over a few high-level lodging tax facts and rules, the grant process, and then Sarah is going to walk you through a lot of the applicant resources and the actual application online that you will expect to see when you apply for the grant, and then you're welcome to ask some questions at the

end.

So let's just dive in and get started.

So real quick, let's go through the law and restrictions for the revenue.

Uh Washington law allows the city to impose lodging taxes and to use those revenues for all of the purposes that you see on your screen.

Now it's important to know because before applying, you should understand what you are actually eligible to apply under.

Uh, for example, if you're nonprofit um that owns a facility that's tourism related, you could apply for operations expenses or marketing or operations for a specific event.

Um however if you want capital expenditures to be paid for, you must be a municipality or public facility district.

And so we get into some of that eligibility when we're reviewing your specific application.

But but know the the purposes and reach out if you have questions regarding your specific uh situation.

So

the city's source of revenues are a total of 3.3%.

And there's two separate portions to that.

Important to know again, the two percent portion can be used for any of those uses listed on the previous screen, and that's under state law, where 1.3% portion of that tax that we collect is specifically restricted for capital expenditures.

And again, I just mentioned that for capital expenditures, you must be a municipality or a public facilities district.

So that 1.3% is is very restricted for those uses only.

Today we're mostly going to be covering this 2% tax portion because that's what we're um that's what we're offering with this grant funding in 27.

Now

state law requires that the city of Spokane Valley establish what's called the lodging tax advisory committee.

We refer to them as the LTAC, and they uh are responsible for reviewing the applications and making funding recommendations to our city council.

Uh by law, the LTAC has to have two representatives from businesses that collect the tax.

This is the hotel years, basically.

And then two people involved in agencies in some way that are that are authorized to be funded.

So anyone who could be a grant applicant, two people on that committee need to be in that category.

We then have an elected official as our fifth member that serves as the chair.

And currently our mayor Laura Patton sits in that seat.

So

all that being said, for anyone who's not applied before, this is a 30,000 level overview.

Most important parts that you apply, you complete all of the documentation and application and you submit that prior to 4 p.m.

on October 30th.

You will then be required to present to the LTAC at their open public meeting.

And this is highlight of your presentation of your application in that presentation.

And that is currently set for November 18th of this year.

And then if you were awarded, you'd finalize a grant contract agreement with the city.

So that leads us into some important milestone dates that you really should be aware of.

A lot of these dates are in the RFP materials and other on our website.

But we did release the application on September 28th.

It is due, like I just said, 4 p.m.

October 30th.

We cannot accept late applications.

So the system will cut you off at 4 p.m.

if you're not finished.

Then again, that November 18th date, very important.

You are required to present to the LTAC, who will then deliberate and make funding recommendations at that open public meeting.

And then we anticipate the council making that final determination of awards in January of 2027.