Chamber financials, future plans enter new era
Changes in budgeting and input on how the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce handles lodging tax revenue is under way.
During a review of the chamber’s financial statements Friday, attended my members, stakeholders, staff and board members, chamber Executive Committee Vice-Chair and Tourism Committee member Jeff Tolbert said the chamber continues to meet a commitment in paying for a local portion of the new interchange at County Road 222, which will continue a few more years. When that obligation is met, any future commitments will go through a thorough review and weighed carefully to community needs.
“You will see new procedures on how lodging tax money is budgeted and used and a vetting process,” Tolbert said. “We are starting that now. A few years ago, some of this money was used for Heritage Park, then came the interchange. We hope there is another great project that comes along and this money can again be beneficial to our community.”
The meeting Friday included two sessions, one with public officials and the other with media representatives and others. Chamber officials hosted the meeting after several requests to review financial expenditures in recent months. Some of those requests were prompted after the chamber, several months ago, pledged to use the lodging tax toward a sports complex proposed by Cullman County Schools Superintendent Shane Barnette.
That project was shelved and the chamber rescinded the monetary pledge.
Chamber Interim President Peggy Smith reiterated Tolbert’s pledge for greater transparency concerning all aspects of the chamber’s endeavors going forward. She was named to the position just more than a week ago. Leah Bolin left the position in May.
“Finding ways to benefit our community is what we should be striving for. We want to evaluate with our stakeholders the steps we can take that will continue to make our community strong and grow,” Smith said.
Kay Shabel, chair of the chamber board, said every effort is being made to mend relationships with community stakeholders.
“I hope we can mend all of our relationships. With us being more transparent, we can continue to grow in our community as a team,” Shabel said.
The financial statement made available was compiled by Warren Averett CPAs and Advisors, which has worked with chamber for many years.
Charlie Eddy of Warren Averett said the chamber has maintained assets of about $1.4 million and has a cash reserve of just over $400,000. He also said the financial report was chosen over an audit in order to provide details of revenue and expenditures and save the organization the cost of an audit.
“There’s no particular reason for the chamber to have an audit, but we have been providing these reviews for many years with the chamber,” Eddy said. “If there is ever a reason, we can upgrade to an audit.”
The financial review includes expenditures for events sponsored by the chamber, a breakdown of lodging tax collected, which is more than $500,000 annually by a legislative act in the 1990s and about $200,000 of that amount going to interchange cost.
Financial reviews and tax forms of the chamber are online at cullmanchamber.org or by following this link: http://www.cullmanchamber.org/pages/financials.