Recent recommendations made by the Mexico Tourism Commission to cut advertising funding by more than 50% of what was requested for local events didn’t sit well with the Mexico City Council.

The Mexico Tourism Commission met Feb. 5 to discuss three applications for advertising funding that were submitted by the Mexico Area Chamber of Commerce, the Mexico FFA chapter and the Mexico Village Square Association/The Salty Heifers Co. Recommendations for funding were brought before the Mexico City Council during its Feb. 9 meeting, and the council rejected them in favor of increasing the funds.

The Mexico FFA Chapter requested $5,000 for its Truck and Tractor Pull, which will be held May 2. At the tourism meeting, Commissioner Rich Gold made a motion to recommend the City Council approve $2,000.

The Salty Heifers and the VSA fared the same, as their request for $7,500 for the second annual Jeep Thing was cut to $2,000.

Both amounts recommended by the commission were the same as last year’s, but City Manager Bruce Slagle said he thinks the funding could be higher based on what each event brings to the community.

“The Jeep event, that was a very big event downtown last year — and $2,000 just doesn't even really get it off the ground for advertising,” he said.

After seeing the Tourism Commission's recommendations, Mayor Haag inquired about the Tourism Fund balance, which, according to Vicki Duenke, finance director for the City of Mexico, is $260,089.56 — a statistic she also shared with the tourism commission at the Feb. 5 meeting.

“It’s not like we get 700 of these a year,” Haag said. “We undercut a lot and it seems to get bigger and bigger. I struggle with the fact that we want events here, and I don’t think they’re lying to us — they’re going to spend all that money — and then we fund less than half of what they ask for.”

Slagle said the purpose of the Tourism Fund is to support advertising, promote materials and enhance the development of festivals and the Mexico tourism market.

“I think we’ve got some funds available to do that, and I think we don’t need to nickel and dime these like this, and I think we may end up with some better events,” he added.

While recommended funding was cut for the Mexico FFA chapter and the VSA, the $5,000 request made by The Mexico Area Chamber of Commerce to advertise the Eat, Shop, Play Mighty MexicoMO app failed to pass altogether. At the tourism meeting, Gold made a motion to approve the application and revisit the request in six months, at the time of renewal, to evaluate growth, but the motion failed with only two yes votes from commissioners Jennifer Prior and Kathy Lewis and one no from Gold. Commissioner and Mexico Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Dana Keller abstained.

“That app is used by a lot of people and it promotes the community,” Slagle said.

From a staff recommendation, Slagle said the Mexico FFA chapter Truck and Tractor Pull and the VSA Jeep Thing should be funded at a higher level and that the city should fund the Mighty MexMO app.

Council member Vicki Briggs agreed, adding that the app is invaluable to Missouri Military Academy families.

“They come from all over the world and they read that and it tells them where to go to eat, tells them where to stay, gives them all sorts of information, so I know they use it — I know they depend on it,” she said. “It looks like we do have a substantial amount of money in that fund. That money is to be used to build our tourism and instead, it looks to me like, when I'm looking at these numbers here, that we’re sort of holding back a little bit for whatever reason.”

Larry Webber, a city council member, asked why the tourism commission is holding back and why it hasn’t explored other avenues of promoting tourism in addition to the applications during the City Council meeting.

Duenke said the Tourism Fund balance started building in a way it hadn’t before when the Walk Back in Time transitioned to a biennial event, and it's going to take creative thinking, and possibly even the fresh perspective of new commission members to do that.

“It seems like we’re getting a lot of new, young leadership in town and they’re really interested in this sort of thing and they’ve got a lot of creative ideas, so we really need to encourage all those people to come forward and help,” Briggs said.

The dollar amount requested is not random. Duenke said each applicant does its own due diligence to outline specific advertising costs, and regardless of what the commission and council approves, Tourism Fund recipients will only be reimbursed for what they spent up to their approved amount, even if they come in under budget.

“As far as the commission — how they’re coming up with what they may choose to fund — honestly, it seems kind of arbitrary,” she added.

The Mexico City Council unanimously voted to amend the recommended amounts and approved $3,000 for the Mexico FFA Truck and Tractor Pull, $7,500 for the Mexico Jeep Thing and $5,000 to fund the Mighty MexMO app.