Members of the Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission got their first glimpse of a proposed 2026 budget at the commission’s monthly workshop and learned of a handful of noteworthy changes planned for the new year.
At a workshop held Wednesday, Sept. 10, finance director Ty Reed laid out the proposed budget, which includes 5 percent less tax remittance expected in 2026. However, the bottom line projects a $5,500 increase in total income next year.
“We’re proposing for 2026 to have total collections of $2 million with a total income of $2.3 million, and total expenses of the same, so a balanced budget,” Reed said.
Because of uncertainty about tourism, $2 million in tax collections are budgeted for 2026, compared with $2,106,000 in 2025. However, $2,309,000 is budgeted for total income in 2026 while $2,303,500 is the 2025 projection.
Key figures in the proposed budget include the planned addition of shows put on in The Auditorium by the CAPC and bringing in a proposed $160,000 in ticket sales sold in-house. In comparison, $40,000 was budgeted for ticket sales in 2025.
“The biggest changes that we had were we’re toying with the idea of doing some shows in The Aud ourselves, and so that’s why the inhouse ticket sales income went up dramatically because we’re toying with the idea of doing that, producing our own shows,” Reed said.
The CAPC would like to produce eight shows throughout the year, starting in the spring, director Mike Maloney told commissioners.
“During the course of the year, if we can produce eight shows, and each show averaging somewhere in the vicinity of about a $20,000 artist fee, and we’re lapping on top of that our tech, our security, our ushers, and all those auxiliary fees, If we sell 400 tickets at $50 on average, that’s going to raise that up incrementally [to the projection],” Maloney said. “So that’s kind of the projection that we’ve looked at is based on eight shows and each one generating somewhere in the vicinity of basically about … $20,000 in income times eight, is going to give us the latitude to be able to do that. And we wouldn’t start those until probably March or April of the year. And if we can do eight shows, not counting a show that could come in from Little Wing or another promoter, then there’s a pretty good optimism that we could do that.”
To balance the budget, the CAPC is also drastically reducing the amount spent on its outside advertising agency, Madden Media.
In 2025, the CAPC budgeted $1,225,295 to Madden, but will trim that down to $750,000 in 2026, opting to handle more things in-house next year, commissioners were told.
To make up for that, the 2026 budget proposal adds 52.7 percent to the in-house media buys category, raising it from $65,000 in 2025 to $99,274 next year, $3,000 more in media visits, and $5,000 more in in-house photography and video production.
“In the broad sense of where we are, with some of the in-house capabilities we already have, we understand that we are going to have to go ahead and make an adjustment with the agency,” Maloney said. “All the advertising you see for media this year was budgeted at $725,000, and we’re on track to spend all that. What we’re proposing for 2026 is to continue with Madden, but to drop that figure down to $500,000, but we will go ahead and take $100,000 of that back in-house. In public relations, we don’t want to change that number because the PR has been so valuable for us and that not only speaks to Eureka Springs but also the Northwest Arkansas Tourism Association. … In terms of creative services, because we are cutting back, we’ve got so much creative in the can right now. Because of photography, because of video, because of our imaging, and even some of the ad work, we have a lot of stuff that probably hasn’t even gone out completely yet. But, we think we need to pare that back from $144,000 to $75,000.
“Web hosting, we’re paying [Madden] $45,000. We’re going to go ahead and probably pull that and transfer that to an organization that we work with in Alabama. They host a couple of our things right now, at much less. This will basically go ahead and give us the opportunity to work on almost all of the web in-house. … In media placement, and actually that should be media strategy in placement, we’re spending $150,000 a year to do what I’ve done professionally all my life, buy media. So we’re going to pare that back to them, to have [Madden] work basically in the social media realm, where they have better expertise. … So yeah, it’s a big chunk, and it looks daunting in a way, but the realism is that we’re still spending a lot money with an agency. We’re just not spending as much money, and I think that we’re very capable of doing that internally. We’ve had staff discussion about that.”
Other budget proposals include trimming the group sales income from $5,000 to $2,500, dropping the Folk Festival budget from $9,000 to $5,000 for advertising and website and lowering the Folk Fest talent buy from $25,000 to $20,000.
In addition, the budget is proposed to lower the amount given to parks and recreation for fireworks for Jamboreeka from $10,000 to $7,000, lowering the budget for music in the park by $3,000 and dropping the budget for upgrades and renovations to The Aud from $10,000 to $8,000.
The budget for the New Year’s Eve celebration will be $30,000, and $20,000 will be budgeted for Christmas, Reed said.
Some commissioners said since the Christmas season lasts an entire month more money should be set aside for those holiday decorations and events and perhaps less for New Year’s Eve, which just lasts a handful of hours.
“I hear a lot of people say they wish Eureka Springs could be more Christmassy,” new commissioner Coltan Scrivner said. “I’m open to discussing increasing the budget for Christmas because it’s something that you put up for at least a month after Thanksgiving. It’s not just a week or a weekend. It’s a month full of things.”
Commissioners were told a “Eureka Express” is being planned for the holiday season at the train depot, similar to the experience seen in the movie “Polar Express,” and will include story time with Santa, local volunteer dancers, and hot cocoa and cookies.
“I like the ‘Polar Express’ train idea because it reaches people of all different … it’s not necessarily Christmas,” commissioner Shira Fouste said. “Lots of people like trains. It doesn’t matter what religion you subscribe to. Trains and cocoa feel good to anybody in the winter months. So, I just wanted to say, because often I feel like we miss the fact that one of the things we embrace here are the differences of people. And I think that tag-lining everything as Christmas sometimes leaves out the fact, that not everybody is celebrating Christmas. It welcomes more.”
The new train ride idea went over well with commissioners, but the idea of more money spent on Christmas will be talked about in upcoming workshops, chair Steve Holifield said.
“I mean, if we’re spending $30,000 on one night in New Year’s, I think we could spend a little more across the entire month,” Scrivner said.
Other topics that will be talked about during future budget workshops include payroll and the possibilities of adding bonuses and/or cost of living adjustments.
WATER LEAK ISSUE
During discussions about dropping the budget for expenses on upkeep of The Auditorium, Maloney mentioned to commissioners a water leak that’s under the building that the city has stated its won’t fix.
While the city owns The Auditorium, the CAPC is responsible for maintaining the building.
“Let’s put it into context: It’s been leaking for a while and how much it’s leaking is only because we realize that about every month our water bill goes up another $100, but there’s not that many people flushing,” Maloney said. “I guarantee you we drink coffee but not that much. ….”
The leak is underground and repairing it will be a huge undertaking, commissioners were told.
Maloney said Simon Wiley, the city’s public works director, found the leak, but said his department couldn’t fix it.
“The two things that came up was, No. 1, we would have to go ahead and hire a plumber, or the city would hire the plumber,” Maloney said. “They would have goahead to cordon the area off with fire safety because of the fact that there’s a tunnel, and you’re underneath there, things could go bad. I have no idea what it would take to fix it. No estimate. I’m only going to guess it’s just $5,000, $10,000. I have no idea.”
Regardless, the CAPC would be expected to foot the bill, commissioners discussed, with many expressing frustration that the city doesn’t contribute more to the upkeep of the building.
“The next council meeting I’ll ask why is that a policy that the city can’t fix its own plumbing,” Holifield said.
“Especially if it’s getting, you said it’s going up continually each month,” Scrivner said. “OK, so it’s getting bigger which means that eventually it’s gonna burst, right, it’s gonna have a bigger issue. Something could happen.”
Maloney responded: “…. Eventually, it will break.”
Maloney said he was going to discuss the issue with Mayor Butch Berry.
“Mike, if for some reason you’re stalled in your discussion, let [us] know so that we can bring it up to the entire council,” commissioner David Avanzino said.
