Have you ever stated “if only Purcell had a ______” (fill in the blank?)  Or have you ever dreamed what would be a nice improvement or addition to our community?  I trust most of us have had one of both of those thoughts.  I believe those dreams are about making Purcell a more attractive community for its residents and its visitors.

A great example of the impact of a dream coming true in our community is the Christmas Lights at the lake.  The best estimates put the number of visitors to the lake between Thanksgiving and New Years in 2020 to be over 30,000 folks!  Those visitors ate, drank and fueled up in our community!  What a boom to our local economy.

As with any dream or wish, the hard part in making one come true relies on having the necessary resources to make it a reality.

If this ordinance passes, our community will be on the path of securing the necessary funds over time to make some of those dreams come true.  The ordinance specifies the funds to be spent on “tourism event and venue infrastructure” and “advertising and promotion of tourism events and venues.”

The decision as to what to spend the funds on will rest in the hands of the Lodging Tax Committee whose members are a broad cross section of the stake holders in our community.  Many ideas will be presented to the committee and it will be up to them to prioritize and spend the funds as designated by the ordinance.

And with those realized dreams, we will increase the reasons for visitors to make our community a stop on their schedule.  And when visitors come to town they will spend their money on accommodations, food, fuel and supplies.  Not only does that increased spend benefit our local businesses it also benefits the community with increased sales tax revenue.