Use of Duluth tourism tax under scrutiny
June 12, 2011 at 7:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
A city task force assigned to cast a critical eye on how Duluth plans to spend nearly $7.5 million in local tourism taxes this year is asking lots of questions, and its members expect answers.
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Britton also wants time to wade through the written materials
Dan Hartman, a city councilor who also serves on the tourism tax task force, said he was pleased with the quality of Visit Duluth’s presentation
So they had to stop everything they were doing during their busiest time and put together this excellent report but missed an arbitrary deadline. Big deal.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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That’s what I was thinking too….this headline seems a little misleading. “Use of Duluth tourism tax under scrutiny.” I thought the article was going to be about controversy in the way money is spent, not the fact that Visit Duluth was 2 weeks late in filing a report. Doesn’t seem like a big deal to me.
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I hate to do it but I completely agree with the undue hardship put on the organization in middle of May…Was that a misprint or were they really expected to answer questions, that took 200 pages, in 9 days? Why not approach this subject after the summer months?
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Agree with the comments above. There is no story here, only a summary of the realities of day-to-day business activities.
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If VisitDuluth engaged in theft or interests that could give rise to conflicts that would be a story. There’s nothing of the sort indicated and VisitDuluth done a fine job promoting Duluth. A breakdown of VisitDuluth expenses and income can be found in the 9900 filings at:
http://foundationcenter.org/findfunders/990finder/
Visit Duluth is the Doing Business as Name & one must search for the legal entity name Duluth Publicity Bureau. The compensation for employees and officers is included and the CEO deserved the 10% increase between 2008 & 2009 attracting the Tall Ships.
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Whoa Nelly! He deserved the 10% increase for attracting the Tall Ships? I call you-know-what.
Visit Duluth is indeed the umbrella agency responsible for promoting tourism in the city, HOWEVER, everyone ought to be at least aware that that basically work on three tasks throughout the course of the year:
1) Snocross. Visit Duluth is the primary agency in charge of bringing Snocross to the city each Thanksgiving Weekend. This is wonderful and all, but their basic responsibilities boil down to coordination with a National Circuit and volunteer coordination. If anyone deserves thanks for great show that is put on, it’s the volunteer workers and medical staff.
2) Tall Ships. Another great event. It attracts a lot of locals to come down to Canal Park and spend some money. Yes, I suppose it brings in a few outside dollars too. Again, not possible without a National circuit and a slew of volunteers. Role of Visit Duluth: Volunteer coordination & publicizing.
3) Promotion of the City. Duluth is a Cool City – as if everyone didn’t already know. Visit Duluth also puts on an ad campaign that the private sector would do a heck of a lot cheaper.
-The CEO of Visit Duluth makes approx. $160,000 per year in addition to benefits. There are other supportive employees as well.
- The CEO of the Spirit Mt. Recreational Area happens to be the wife of the CEO of Visit Duluth – this agency is another umbrella agency receiving local aid. She also makes approximately $160,000 plus benefits.
Does anyone find it remotely suspicious that this husband/wife combination is allowed the two top CEO positions on taxpayer funded operations that fall under 501(c)(3) charitable organization status in the city? Is it just me, or have they got themselves a heck of a good deal going on?
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The $160,000 CEO VisitDuluth salary noted isn’t supported by the Form 990 tax filings. The W2/1099 income is $105K in 2008 & $115K in 2009. Other compensation is $22K in both 2008 & 2009.
No idea where CEO of Spirit Mountain salary can be located since my understanding it that it is not a nonprofit corp and funding is provided by the City of Duluth tourism fund.
Visit Duluth is also actively engaged in marketing Duluth as a convention destination.
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My apologies, I also added in his expense account. Either way, the point is that we are paying conflicted parties too much to do too little.
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If 55% of your budget is derived from one source, it’s usually good business practice to answer any questions they have in a timely manner.
Initially, I’d assumed Visit Duluth must be a one man operation, after reading the excuses as to why the questions weren’t answered in the time requested.
Are they really operating an organization where only one person has the ability to answer questions?
Why in the world would anyone feel it was OK to do something like this?
“he had directed Mattson to focus on a more general list of questions the task force sent to other organizations instead of the more tailored request originally sent to Visit Duluth.”
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Why not eliminate their funding for the DECC expansion and make UMD foot the bill, since they’re the only entity that is really benefitting from this white elephant.
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