Duluth Proposes to Spend Extra Tourism Tax Revenue
DULUTH - Lake Superior and the beautiful summers make Duluth, a tourism hotspot, and in 2012 tourism generated profit for the city of Duluth, despite last summer’s floods.
“It’s more or less the front door to the Glensheen experience for the tourists and it’s in dire need of being re-worked,” Bill Payne, UMD’s Dean of School of Fine Arts, said.
With its many cracks and potholes, the parking lot of the Glensheen Estate is in need of a makeover.
“Currently the paving of the parking lot is bordering on unsafe and we’d like to do it, it’s time. We’re not going to make the parking lot any bigger, it’s just going to become a new surface,” Payne said.
The City of Duluth has a $1.1 million dollar surplus in its tourism tax fund, and the Glensheen’s project proposal has made the list of 12 projects that will be presented to the city council on Monday.
“They had a task force looking into how tourism taxes are allocated. And one of the recommendations was to make available funds to organizations who had not been recipients or annual recipients of the tourism tax,” Peggy Shehar, City of Duluth’s CFO, said.
Projects include the Lakewalk, the airport, the aquarium and both new and old recipients.
“Some city projects as well, but there’s Spirit Mountain who is scheduled to receive $60,000 for new trails which is really exciting, Munger trail extension, Enger Park bathroom, Leif Erickson park, the DECC improvements,” Shehar said.
The mayor and the city administrator had been meeting with city councilors during the process, so Spehar is hopeful that the resolution will pass and is already looking ahead.
“Anticipating construction this Spring and getting it done this year. So kind of fast-tracking it with Spring right around the corner, so we can get those projects going,” Shehar said.
The city said the surplus was due to conservative budgeting and in 20-12 alone. Tourism revenues exceeded budget by over 6 percent.
