Lawrence Busker Festival: Best Local Event, Best of Lawrence 2015

Quintessential Lawrence events and programs, such as the Free State Festival and Busker Festival, as well as countless other crowd-gathering affairs, will soon have a new potential source of funding if a new grant program gains City Commission approval Tuesday.

Commissioners will look at the proposed operation of the Transient Guest Tax Program, which would use $150,000 tax dollars per year to fund grants for events and programs that bring visitors to Lawrence and/or create a unique atmosphere for the community. City staff is proposing the City Commission create a seven-member advisory board to select grant recipients during two funding cycles per year.

“We completed a grant program to be able to take those requests for event organizers or people in the community thinking about bringing in an event or program to Lawrence that might need help getting off the ground,” said Megan Gilliland, the city’s spokesperson. “Those kinds of things that help create the atmosphere and climate for travel, tourism, arts and culture in Lawrence, things like that.”

The money used for the program comes from the transient guest tax fund, which is supported by a 6 percent tax the city collects on all overnight hotel stays in Lawrence.

Gilliland said the City Commission have previously been asked, outside of the city’s budget cycle, to approve funding requests for Lawrence events. The grant program would provide an avenue for organizers to gain city funding specifically allocated for their use, she said.

The plan for the grant program calls for the seven-member advisory board to decide twice per year — once in February and once in October — what programs and events to fund. The board would take their recommendations to the City Commission for final approval.

In September, after lengthy debate, commissioners voted to contribute $60,000 of the $100,000 requested by the Lawrence Arts Center for the 2016 Free State Festival. The request was made outside of the budget cycle, and organizers said that without the full $100,000 — 25 percent of the event’s budget — it was unsure whether the event could move forward.

The Arts Center has since announced the event will be held as planned.

Gilliland pointed to the Free State Festival as a possible future beneficiary of the new grant program.

“The things I’m thinking of are like the downtown Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade, the Busker Fest, Free State Festival — those are the types of events the city has helped sponsor in the past, she said.

If commissioners agree Tuesday with the proposed operation of the grant program, the city plans to host an informal meeting with organizations that might be interested in funding this year.

“We want to reassure people that once we get direction on the program, we’ll work with those interested in getting grant applications,” Gilliland said.

The advisory board would be created and appointed at the Feb. 16 City Commission meeting. It would comprise two representatives from the hotel industry, someone from the Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission, a board member of eXplore Lawrence, two community members and a city commissioner.

The year’s first round of funding would start immediately, with applications being due March 3. The advisory board would review the applications and make recommendations on March 10, and the City Commission would vote on the recipients March 29.

The second round of funding would begin in September.

In the grant application, organizations will be asked, among other things, to estimate the number of overnight stays the event or program will generate for Lawrence hotels.

It’s recommended that no more than 25 percent of the event’s overall budget be requested.