Since its approval by the Food and Beverage Tax Advisory Committee in late March, Monroe County’s food and beverage tax fund has distributed just shy of $200,000 to local businesses.
The criteria for receiving funds is reserved for restaurants and businesses that promote tourism, but what types of businesses does that include?
“We established a policy and developed an interview process which highlights the need and the relationship of the business to tourism,” Monroe County Commissioner Julie Thomas says. “In some cases, we can get hard data on out-of-county vs. in-county visitors. For others we are looking at their role in supporting tourism.”
Thomas says the three members of the Board of Commissioners divide up the applications as they come in and then they conduct an interview with each applicant.
“We then turn our interview notes over to county legal staff for a review. In some cases, we have returned to an applicant for additional information,” Thomas says. “We consider the impact of the pandemic on their business, their expenses, staff payroll, and other forms of assistance that they have applied for.”
This chart breaks down which businesses received funds from the $192,314 that was distributed. Data courtsey of Monroe County Commissioner Julie Thomas. (Ethan Burks, WFIU/WTIU News)
Our City Limits: Coronavirus team was asked specifically why U’Sta-B-New furniture store received funds and why the store was considered as “promoting tourism.”
“They are a resale shop and their inventory includes art objects,” Thomas says. “The shop draws people from outside the county due to some of specialty items that they have in the store.”
Thomas says the county can only distribute funds while there is a statewide emergency order from the governor. She says right now the county is working under an assumed deadline of June 30.
“We have had some additional applications come in and we continue to accept new ones,” Thomas says. “Because of state statute, we can only assist businesses in Monroe County - outside the City of Bloomington - and the business must be tourism-related.”
Thomas says overall the county has received positive feedback from business owners.
“We are thrilled that we can do something to help them out in these incredibly challenging times,” Thomas says.
For the latest news and resources about COVID-19, bookmark our Coronavirus In Indiana page here.
