Staff at the Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission are cracking down on owners of restaurants, bars and lodging businesses that aren’t regularly turning in their required tourism tax collections.

That’s what director Mike Maloney told members of the CAPC at its regular monthly meeting held Wednesday, April 23.

“We do have a procedure that [finance director] Ty [Reed] and I put together, which basically is a result of the scope of Chapter 2.60 of the advertising and promotion tax … from the City of Eureka Springs,” Maloney said. “This ordinance was put together in 2007. It has been changed ever so slightly, but nothing major, but the point being … I do want to make you all aware of the fact that we do have a procedural statement right now that’s basically a one-pager.

“We’ll go ahead and post this publicly so that people do know that we are enforcing the A&P tax. We’re doing quite a bit of work to try to go ahead and provide the commission with the collection of information that you want. There is a little bit of procedural work to this, also legal procedures that goes into it. The chapter 2.60 is a very demanding document that not only provides the alternatives for an A&P commission to go ahead and settle debt, also it provides relief for that person or collector that may feel that they’re not being treated fairly.

“Ultimately, it all goes back to one thing. If you are in business and you’re collecting the A&P tax, you need to remit it back to the A&P. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. And we’re really working with people to explain that procedure to them. Ty and I both are making calls to people. We’re actually making personal visitations and really just enforcing the law. We’re not trying to be difficult about it, but as part of our job as a collector, that’s the responsibility of the collector to go ahead and take the 3 percent, put it aside, then remit it back to the A&P. That’s why you were entitled to the business license to begin with, and that’s the reason that you have the opportunity to go ahead and do business.”

Each month commissioners are provided a list of businesses that are delinquent. Some are a month or two behind, while others have been past due for a lot longer, Maloney said, adding that the names of the delinquent businesses are confidential.

“We do have a list here that seems to get a little wieldy at times, but at the same token we’re seeing successes within that collection effort right now, and sometimes it’s just a matter of working with that collector to say: ‘Let’s figure out how we can go ahead and get you caught up,’ ” Maloney said. “Then working with them to do that, but it’s also like herding cats. We have to chase them around and we have to knock on the door, sometimes multiple times, but this procedure is in place right now and we’re doing due diligence to make sure that it’s working out.”

Commissioner Robert Schmid asked which businesses on the current delinquent list were only behind on remittance a month or so, and which ones were multiple months behind.

“We can’t publicly disclose that, Robert,” Maloney responded.

“No, I mean, we don’t need to name them, but I thought we would break them down so we know which ones are like two months behind, three months behind,” Schmid said.

“If you want to come into the office, we can share that with you personally,” Maloney answered.

FINANCIAL REPORT

Reed reported that the CAPC had $1.741 million in the bank.

“For March, tax collections were $91,000 with a budget of $95,000,” he said. “Actual for the year, $292,000 with a budget of $293,000.

“…Total expenses for March were $182,000 with the budget of $231,000. For the year to date, total expenses are $596,000 with a budget of $678,000. With our equity infusion brings it to zero.”

Reed said total collections for February “so far” are $80,000 compared to $104,000 collected in 2024 and $96,000 in 2023.

“We’ve been working on our past due collections,” he said. “So, the 2024 total for the year [now] over $2 million versus $1.9 million in 2023.”

PUBLIC RELATIONS

One highlight of Maloney’s monthly tourism report was that the CAPC has received more than $900,000 in ad value equivalency.

“Our public relations continues to be just what a pleasure this really is,” he said. “If you look at the ad value equivalency of $909,628, almost a million dollars in PR equivalency. ‘Travel-Pulse’ picked us up, ‘The Washington Post’ picked us, ‘CNN Travel’ picked us. Madden [Media] delivered eight different publications for us. And those are 34 publications that also picked us that weren’t just part of Madden. We’re starting to get this organic reach out there in the universe about Eureka Springs, and it’s coming from basically all over the United States, and in certain other parts of the world as well.

“But, you know, if we hit a million every quarter, that’d be $4 million in PR that we didn’t have to spend hardly any money on to get. And that’s a big deal. So I’m really pleased with, you know, really how that worked out.”

MARKETING ‘PILLARS’ Maloney told commissioners that four marketing topics were developed heading into 2025 with Madden Media — weddings, trolleys, nightlife and mountain biking.

Advertising and events involving mountain biking are in the works and the CAPC is actively working with the parks department on ideas focusing on the city’s many trails, Maloney said.

When it comes to trolleys, Maloney asked the commission to approve spending $7,500 for a two-minute video showing the city’s transit system.

“We really haven’t promoted anything visually like this before with transit, or another department, but we think this is a good fit,” he said.

Commissioner Heather Wilson said the $7,500 cost for the video “is a very good price” and made a motion, which was unanimously approved.

OTHER ITEMS

Maloney said the recent Eureka Springs Music Awards “were a huge success.”

“Thank you, commissioners, for being such an integral part of it,” he said. “Just incredible response from it. So many people were talking about it, and we reached a group of people, some of them, I don’t know if they’ve ever been in The Auditorium before. It was a great chance for them to be here and get recognized for something that was very, very cool.”

Renovations to Basin Spring Park, which the CAPC helped to fund, are wrapping up, Maloney said.

“We are waiting for the mayor to give us a day that he will come up and help us put it all together, basically to go ahead, and if you will, bless it or cut the ribbon or whatever,” he said. “… It just sort of stands out as just a great example of what Eureka Springs does so well.”

Commissioners also approved an $8,000 request from Maloney for the band Indigenous to perform at The Aud as part of the Eureka Springs Blues Party weekend.

“… We would go ahead and hire Indigenous, but [promoter] Larry Shaeffer would go ahead and give us basically our rental fee and also 50 percent of the gate…,” Maloney said.

Maloney told commissioners that the CAPC will start receiving collections from Vrbo on June 1, something that has been in the works for months.

“Vrbo finally signed the contract. …” he said.

FUNDING REQUESTS

The commission approved funding support for a pair of events to benefit the Eureka Springs Historical Museum.

A time-travel themed event, “1973 Long Hair Invasion,” will be held Aug. 8 and was approved to receive the requested $2,650 from the CAPC.

Meanwhile, Voices of Eureka Silent City, a popular event each October and the museum’s biggest fundraiser according to director Jeff Danos, was approved to receive $5,000 from the commission.

“Even if you decide not to [approve the requests], I want to thank you because I don’t know if you guys heard but we were actually named the fourth-best small-town museum in the United States recently by USA Today Readers’ Choice Awards,” Danos said before the votes. “I know the CAPC’s efforts were a big part of that, and so I think we make a great team and we appreciate everything you guys do to put our city on the map.”