13 Beaufort-area groups will get $321,000 in state grants next year to help promote tourism
The Beaufort City Council has awarded $321,110 in state tax grants to 13 local nonprofits for 2023 — almost double what it doled out for this year.
The annual grants, funded by the 2% State Accommodations Tax, or ATAX, on overnight stays, go toward projects that promote tourism and attract visitors. This year’s projects range from a shark exhibit to a Harriet Tubman monument to Spanish Moss Trail signs.
The city’s Tourism Development Advisory Committee considers the applications and makes recommendations but the City Council has the final say.
Receiving funds this year are:
▪ Greater Beaufort-Port Royal Convention and Visitors Bureau, $156,000 for marketing.
▪ Greater Beaufort-Port Royal Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, $31,000 for a sales plan.
▪ Beaufort Area Hospitality Association, $10,000 for Beaufort Oyster Festival.
▪ Friends of Hunting Island, $30,000 for exhibits.
▪ SC Lowcountry and Resorts Island Tourism Commission, $25,775 for regional promotion.
▪ Tabernacle Baptist Church, $10,000 for Harriet Tubman Monument and 160th anniversary of Combahee River raid.
▪ Port Royal Sound Foundation, $6,100 for shark exhibit.
▪ Beaufort Area Sports Council, $12,000 for sports sales initiatives.
▪ Friends of Spanish Moss Trail, $2,185 for various signs.
▪ Mather School Museum at Technical College of the Lowcountry, $8,000 for history programming and promotion.
▪ Gullah Festival, $10,000 for promotion.
▪ Gullah Kinfolk Traveling Theater, $15,000 for Christmas and Decoration Day shows.
▪ Beaufort History Museum, $5,050 for touch-screen kiosks.
The Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce, which requested $13,000, did not receive any funds for the 2023 grant cycle.
Last year, $183,135 was awarded to seven nonprofit local organizations. The additional revenue this year, City Manager Bill Prokop said, was the result of greater revenue generated by the ATAX because of increased tourism.
“More heads in beds,” Prokop said.
As a result of the increase in funds, Councilman Phil Cromer said he recommended reducing the amounts for four groups and increasing them for three.
The amount for Greater Beaufort-Port Royal Convention and Visitors Bureau was reduced from $160,000 to $156,000. Funding for the Greater Beaufort-Port Royal Convention and Visitor’s Bureau was reduced from $35,000 to $31,000. The requested amount for Friends of Hunting Island was reduced from $40,000 to $30,000. And the amount the committee recommended for the SC Lowcountry and Resorts Island Tourism Commission was reduced from $35,775 to $25,775.
Those funds were then redistributed to the Gullah Festival (zero to $10,000), Gullah Kinfolk Traveling Theater ($6,000 to $15,000), Beaufort History Museum (zero to $5,050).
“I wanted to spread the wealth a little bit,” said Cromer, noting that he targeted extra funds for smaller organizations with shoestring budgets that rely heavily on volunteers. “I felt a couple of these groups didn’t get anything or got very little.”
As a check and balance, Cromer also suggested an amendment requiring that recipients prove that their not-for-profit status with the state is current before receiving funding. That provision was added because some of the groups do not have active nonprofit statuses.
Prior to the vote Tuesday, Larry Holman, CEO of the Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce, said he agrees with the provision but, going forward, that and other criteria should be clear in the application process. That would avoid the appearance that the committee is refusing to award funds to groups it doesn’t like. He also recommended that members of the committee go through diversity training.
Internal struggles between Holman and board members surfaced in 2020 when the board members filed a lawsuit accusing Holman of financial irregularities and appointing his own board of directors. Holman has called the lawsuit “frivolous.” Holman’s wife, Wilma Holman, is a candidate for City Council in the Nov. 8 election.
In both 2020 and 2021, the black chamber received $3,500 for marketing. The group did not apply to the city for accommodation tax funding in the 2022 cycle.
Even with reductions for some groups, Mayor Stephen Murray noted, all of the organizations receiving funds are getting more money than they received last year. The grants, he added, strike a balance between visitor experience and marketing.
“And it funds cultural and heritage tourism,” Murray said, “which is a priority of this council.”
The city does not cut immediately cut checks for the ATAX grants. Organizations must submit final reports that document the expenses in order to be reimbursed.
This story was originally published October 12, 2022 at 3:08 PM.
