M.C. Tourism meeting this Thursday in County Building

Members of the Marshall County Tourism Commission will meet in a public meeting on Thursday, June 13th at 2p.m. in the second-floor meeting room of the County Building.

The brief agenda for the meeting includes Old and New Business, Other Matters, and Public Comment.

The new commission also heard from County Auditor Angie Birchmier.  She said 80 counties in Indiana collect an Innkeeper’s Tax. The tax is collected monthly through the state from hotels, motels, and online marketplace vacation rentals such as Airbnb, Vrbo, Priceline, and HomeToGo.  The funds are then transferred to the county and the Tourism Commission submits an invoice to receive the funds.

The commission accepted the County Auditor’s recommendation to keep fund 7704 and handle the funds through their own bank accounts instead of having the county write and issue checks.

Last week the commission met and hired Sean Surrisi to be their attorney.  He will continue to try and acquire additional documents from the old tourism commission. The attorney recommended creating a new non-profit corporation which will be a 501C6 instead of trying to acquire the old corporation. 

Surrisi will also assist with creating bylaws and the articles of incorporation for the June 13th meeting. 

During the discussions, it was noted that the old tourism commission and corporation had $342,000 in the bank in January, but that account has now been closed and it is unclear where they are or how they were expended.