Springfield Chamber Submits Testimony on Best and Highest Use of Room Tax (TRT) Increase

September 28, 2022

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The following testimony from Vonnie Mikkelsen, President and CEO of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, was submitted for public record on September 26, 2022.

Dear Chair Farr and Lane County Board of Commissioners,

The Springfield Area Chamber stands with our Springfield and Eugene hospitality, tourism, and recreation partners, who view the best and highest use of new lodging tax revenues as that which grows winter and shoulder season demand and regional economic activity.

A multi-use indoor track, sports, and events facility is a project that would achieve that outcome, stabilizing year-round economic demand while also fulfilling an unmet demand for indoor sports, events, and tournament facilities. We are very familiar with such a project, having supported and worked for years to analyze an indoor, multi-use facility in Glenwood that would catalyze regional community and economic benefits.

We have built a strong destination economy in Lane County and, as Travel Lane County reports, one that is recovering well from wildfire and pandemic-induced impacts over the last few years. However, as local hospitality and sports & recreation community leaders point out, we have yet to solve for long-standing, structural problems:

an unmet need for facilities that accommodate local demand for sports, gathering, meetings, conventions, and events;
an economically vulnerable restaurant, retail, recreation, and lodging community during shoulder and winter months; and
an opportunity cost associated with any further delay in solving for these with new lodging tax revenues.

You have an opportunity to solve for these challenges.

A targeted investment of tourism-driven tax dollars will correct and stabilize our economy during winter and shoulder seasons, bolstering our small business economy that relies on visitor spending. Our local lodging industry seeks to provide stable year-round jobs and income to their employees. Our local restaurant, retail, and recreation businesses rely on local and visitor spending to keep their doors open. Our city governments rely on lodging tax base growth and stabilization to bolster resources that in turn drive economic opportunity and community benefit.

To business and community partners invested in our families and our communities, your careful attention to the economic returns on investment as well as a thoughtfully located facility serving the broadest of constituencies across the region matters.

Thank you for committing to a deliberative, transparent, and careful inquiry in this matter.