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June 16, 2025

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2 News Homepage

St. Michaels May 4 Budget Talks to Focus on Marketing, Trash

May 4, 2021 by John Griep

This video is about 33 minutes long.

St. Michaels commissioners will hold a budget work session this afternoon, as the town grapples with two major issues — marketing and trash.

A suggestion to drastically cut the amount of money the town spends on marketing has drawn heated opposition from business owners and tourist attractions.

The debate also has led to two commissioners publicly apologizing to two local business owners for suggesting they had supported the cuts to the town’s marketing budget.

The money for marketing and advertising comes from two revenue sources — the accommodations tax and the amusement and admissions tax.

The accommodations tax is paid by guests staying at hotels, B&Bs, inns, and short-term rentals. The money is collected by the lodging industry and then paid to the county.

Talbot County keeps up to 5% for administrative expenses, then sends the tax revenue to the towns in which the tax was collected.

Any accommodations tax paid for lodging that is outside the incorporated towns is kept by the county, which has dedicated its use for economic development and tourism. However, the county law allows towns to use accommodations tax revenue to “alleviate costs related to tourism.”

The amusement and admissions tax is “imposed on the gross receipts from admissions, the use or rental of recreational or sports equipment and the sale of merchandise, refreshments or services at a nightclub or similar place where entertainment is provided,” according to the state comptroller’s office.

St. Michaels typically has used about 75% of the revenue from those two taxes to pay for town services related to tourism, including trash pickup and police. The town has used the remaining 25% for advertising and marketing.

During an April 16 budget session, Commissioner Tad DuPont, the town’s treasurer, suggested the proposed marketing budget for Fiscal Year 2022 be cut from $140,000 to $40,000.

Several business owners spoke against any cut during the town’s April 27 meeting, noting advertising is responsible for making the town and its attractions so well known.

In addition to the marketing budget, commissioners also are awaiting information on whether it would be more cost effective to out-source trash collection to a private firm.

During the April 27 meeting, Donna Hunt, a former town commissioner, said that issue had been extensively studied in the past and the town determined costs would be lower and services would be better if town crews collected trash.

Hunt noted that a private firm likely would pick up trash later in the day, meaning trash containers would remain on the streets and sidewalks all day until residents returned home from work and were able to put the containers away.

Today’s virtual budget work session is set to begin at 5 p.m. For information on how to view and/or listen to the meeting by computer or phone, click here.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 2 News Homepage Tagged With: accommodations tax, advertising, budget, commissioners, marketing, St. Michaels, tourism

St. Michaels Hard Talk: A Town Debates the Tourism Tax Revenue

April 21, 2021 by John Griep

This video is about 30 minutes long.

A proposed 70% cut to the town’s advertising budget during a recent budget work session has St. Michaels business owners concerned.

During the April 16 virtual session, St. Michaels Commissioner T. Coleman “Tad” DuPont suggested reducing advertising spending from $140,000 to $40,000 in the proposed Fiscal Year 2022 budget.

DuPont, the commission’s treasurer, said the town should not be encouraging more visitors when businesses are unable, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to accommodate current visitors.

He later suggested the savings could be used to fund other costs associated with tourism, such as an additional police officer and Saturday trash pickup.

The funds for advertising do not come from town taxpayers, but from the accommodations tax paid by guests staying at hotels and other lodging.

Talbot County collects the tax, then disburses it to the towns where the money was collected (after deducting up to 5% for administrative costs).

County law requires towns to use accommodations tax revenue “to alleviate costs associated with tourism.”

St. Michaels currently allocates 25% of its accommodations tax revenue “directly to advertising,” 5% to the volunteer fire department, and the remaining 70% throughout its budget “to help support the cost of tourism to the town, ie. Personnel, restroom maintenance, weekend trash pickup, a small portion of dump fees, park maintenance, a portion of Liability Insurance, infrastructure repairs and maintenance, a portion of capital improvements, etc.,” Town Manager Jean Weisman said in response to an information request.

If the town commissioners were to adopt DuPont’s proposal, St. Michaels would only be committing about 8 percent of its accommodations tax revenue directly to advertising to promote tourism to the town.

DuPont’s proposal led to a lengthy and occasionally heated discussion among town commissioners, with Vice President Jaime M. Windon questioning such a drastic cut.

Windon said town business owners would be “aghast” to hear the proposal.

In an April 19 email, Kim Hannon, St. Michaels Business Association president, informed members about the proposed cut.

“Hi, I am writing to let all of you know that the Commissioners of St. Michaels have been discussing slashing the annual advertising budget from $140,000 to $40,000! YES, slashing it $100,000 – 70% CUT,” Hannon wrote.

Town commissioners did not reach a consensus on the cut during the April 16 budget work session and are waiting to learn how much it would cost to outsource trash pickup before setting the next work session.

A public hearing on the budget will be held after it is officially introduced.

The town’s current draft budget, which includes other changes town commissioners accepted by consensus during the April 16 work session, is below.

St. Michaels FY22 Budget 4-16 DRAFT

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 1 Homepage Slider, 2 News Homepage, News Portal Lead Tagged With: accommodations tax, advertising, budget, business, Economy, St. Michaels, tourism

Waterfowl Festival Impact Study Shows Benefits of Annual Event, Community Support

April 7, 2021 by John Griep

Margaret Enloe, executive director of Waterfowl Chesapeake, gave an overview of an impact study of the 2019 Waterfowl Festival to the Easton town council during its Monday night meeting.

Enloe said Waterfowl Chesapeake got a grant for infrastructure work leading up to the 50th Waterfowl Festival, which would have been held in 2020 and is now set for this fall.

“And we considered this study to be part of that infrastructure work leading up to our 50th event,” Enloe said. “Obviously, the 2020 festival was postponed. So here we are in the beginning of 2021, to talk about 2019 economic impact and cultural impact results.”

“And what’s really different about this impact report is that we’re looking at cultural feelings about our event as well,” she said. “We didn’t want to just present numbers, we wanted to know what our local residents and our visitors thought about us.

“We did this in preparation for our 50th festival,” Enloe said. “As I mentioned, we wanted to measure and analyze the full economic contribution that our organization as well as our visitors make to the community. And we wanted to understand the community’s feelings about us.

“So our total economic impact, the big number for 2019, was $2.6 million in impact that was generated from the 2019 Waterfowl Festival — that’s already been out there. I figured I might as well start with the big number, but let me explain a little bit about it.

“What’s very important to understand about this report, and actually any tourism reports that you get is the definition of a visitor,” she said. “There is a very specific definition. And it’s someone who has traveled 50 or more miles to come to an event, or who has stayed overnight.

“And in our case, we’re the primary reason they came that is the definition of a visitor. The reason this is important is we’re measuring new revenues to the county…, meaning someone that doesn’t live here, someone that’s come here and spent here.

“For us, attendees is how many people come. So we had just over 15,000 people in 2019 — 45% of those meet that visitor definition,” she said. “We had just over 8,200 people that came from within 50 miles of Easton to attend Waterfowl Festival.

“(F)estival initiated activities supported a total of 48 jobs full and part time in the county and $1.6 million in wages paid in the county. And you have to understand that those wages of course ripple out in terms of their economic impact as people buy groceries they go out themselves and spend on our businesses.”

Enloe said festival attendees spend much more on shopping than the typical visitor to Talbot County.

“They really, really shop. The average Talbot County visitors spent on retail last year was $50. Waterfall festival visitors spent more than two and a half times that when they arrive here,” she said. “Shopping is about 32% of their spending. Food and beverage is a fairly large portion of their spending as well. We are the entertainment I think in town. But if you look at restaurants and shopping, that’s more than half of visitor spending on those two categories.

“In terms of lodging, lodging is quote ‘only’ 20%. But the amount spent on lodging by visitors on waterfowl weekend represents more than half of the lodging spent in Easton for the entire month of November. So it’s very important to notice that this is sort of our year end culmination in terms of tourism.

“(V)isitors are split between day trippers and overnight guests. So remember that the definition of a visitor is if they travel more than 50 miles, or if they spend the night,” Enloe said. “So we have quite a few day trippers. We’re kind of around 40% stay one or even two nights, roughly 20% stay more than three nights, which we are really surprised to discover that. Party size is pretty close to three people.

“(O)ne of the things that I find really interesting, which is not a surprise, actually … is accommodations. Most are in a hotel or motel. We have a really high number. So we have pretty high spending on lodging in this county. And most of it, as you can see is in Easton — people do stay in the other towns in our county — but East0n is definitely the main place.

“So what do our attendees and residents think about the festival? This was really interesting to me. And I think this number, the net promoter score of 67 is to me one of the most important pieces of this pie,” she said. “If you have a net promoter score, it’s a measure of customer loyalty. It is the single most correlated satisfaction metric with profitability, but also with people returning.

“If you want to improve your event, you look at your net promoter score, and you watch and you see how it changes. So it’s an important measure to know who’s going to visit again, who’s likely going to promote your events, and a good net promoter score, a very good score, is 60. Without fail, we pretty much put the net promoter score out of the water.”

The scores included:

• Overnight guests, especially in Easton — 90

• Visitors whose primary reasons were to enjoy the cultural heritage of the Shore and because attending is a family tradition — 86

• First time visitors — 86

• Repeat visitors — 83

• Other visitors — 74

“And even our own Talbot County residents who have to put up with traffic issues and all sorts of other things for festival weekend, still give us an amazing net promoter score,” Enloe said. The score from locals was 62.

“I want to take a moment here to mention that if this is accurate, with one year of not having the festival and this incredible customer loyalty, I think we’re going to have to hold on to our seats for this November, which in my opinion, is exactly how a 50th anniversary celebration should be,” she said. “So I think we have a lot to look forward to this year.

“So 89% of attendees — so remember that’s everyone — were satisfied or extremely satisfied with the festival; 82% of residents believe that we’re very important … for celebrating and showcasing local culture; 75% of residents think the festival is very important or essential for providing recreational and educational opportunities; 83% of residents believe we are very important or essential for the local economy; (and) 81% believe we are important or essential for promoting local attractions and amenities.”

“I love the fact that 99% of the visitors plan to come back to our county again. Residents opinion 63% believe that we’re important for uniting the community towards a common goal,” Enloe said. “I love that, that was a surprise factor to me, I really was thrilled with that.

Residents also believe the festival is very important or essential to “igniting a sense of community price” (77%) and to providing opportunities for more engagement (71%).

“So wrapping up, we are a community nonprofit organization, we’re a valuable asset for county tourism and economic development. We are now in our fourth generation of guests,” Enloe said. “Please just pause for a minute and think about that. What other festival that’s community run and community supported in this country can claim that they’re on their 50th year?

“A lot of festivals have gone by the wayside,” she said. “We haven’t because our community supports us. We have 750 volunteers that come out, the countless in-kind businesses that come out, we believe we’re going to be a critical part of the recovery for 2021.”

The Waterfowl Festival will mark its 50th year during this year’s event, scheduled for Friday, Nov. 12, through Sunday, Nov. 14.

For more information about the festival, go to waterfowlfestival.org; for more information about Waterfowl Chesapeake, go to waterfowlchesapeake.org.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 2 News Homepage Tagged With: Food, impact, margaret enloe, shopping, tourism, visitors, waterfowl chesapeake, Waterfowl Festival

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