Enough is enough, they said. York County won’t fund a major Lake Wylie tourism spot.

One of the most identifiable spots in Lake Wylie, for residents and newcomers alike, just lost its county funding.

York County Council voted Monday night not to fund the Lake Wylie Visitor Center through hospitality tax money. The move comes amid continued concerns on how long events or groups should be able to use the funding — and how the money is applied.

The visitor center opened in 2007. It’s run by the Lake Wylie Chamber of Commerce, and shares an office with the Chamber. For several years the center asked for and received hospitality tax funding, despite concerns raised a year ago before the $50,000 allotment.

“Certainly there is some question on, if you fund one Chamber should you not fund them all?” said Councilman Michael Johnson, who called for what would be a unanimous vote Monday night to fund five other projects. “And we are not funding all the chambers.”

Hospitality tax money comes from a 2 percent charge on prepared food and drink in unincorporated areas of the county, including restaurants in Lake Wylie and Fort Mill areas such as Carowinds and Baxter. Revenue has to be spent on projects promoting tourism.

For several years now council members, along with the advisory committee recommending which projects get funding, stated publicly they don’t want to keep funding the same festivals and events. Come See Me in Rock Hill, Summerfest in York and the Fort Mill Community Playhouse all had funding denied, too. The advisory group recommended giving the Lake Wylie Visitor Center a little more than $30,000 this year. About 60 percent of its requested amount.

Instead, Council voted to spend about $130,000 on the York County Ag & Art Tour, Arts Council for cultural programming, Cultural & Heritage Commission, Christmasville, Old English District and Old Town Amphitheater in Rock Hill summer concerts. The nine total projects submitted more than $246,000 in funding requests.

Johnson said some groups heard the county’s statements as far back as three years ago that they’d be “turning off this spigot.” The South Carolina Strawberry Festival in Fort Mill received tax funding for several years, but didn’t apply this year.

“This is simply a fulfillment of the promise this Council began to make two to three years ago,” Johnson said.

The funding loss shouldn’t bankrupt events or organizations, since hospitality tax money only can pay up to half of marketing or advertising costs. It isn’t designed to entirely fund groups.

“We want to try to not just be a funding source for certain events that go on over and over,” said Councilman Robert Winkler. “We want them to become more freestanding and be able to use these funds possibly to help new events get started.”

Winkler said as a Chamber member in York and past Summerfest chairman, he expected to hear from both groups unhappy with the decision Monday. Yet he made his decision, specifically for the visitor center, based on a sense of fairness.

“I have had issues in the past with funding Lake Wylie’s chamber when we didn’t fund York’s chamber,” Winkler said. “We’re not just singling out one of these entities. We’re saying everybody’s getting put on the same playing field.”

In the past few years Council hasn’t distinguished much between the visitor center and the overall chamber in Lake Wylie. In last year’s funding request, the center cited a tourism impact of $880,000 using the county’s formula based on visitors, calls received, daily trips and overnight stays generated by promoting the area.

Councilwoman Allison Love, who represents Lake Wylie, said the vote Monday shouldn’t be viewed as a slight toward the chamber or certain events.

“It’s not that we don’t support these events,” she said. “We certainly support all of these events. There’s some great things, and in Lake Wylie we’re not a municipality and we do struggle with getting the word out and having events and things like that.”

Love focused on other potential uses for hospitality tax. Though Council didn’t reference any of them specifically, the hospitality tax advisory committee has heard about or discussed several projects that could be coming their way in coming months. Improvements at Ebenezer Park in Rock Hill have been presented at the county level. Proposed improvements at Allison Creek in Lake Wylie could bring more recreation there.

“There’s some better things coming, specifically for Lake Wylie, but there’s some better things coming countywide,” Love said. “This is a step in the right direction.

Councilman William “Bump” Roddey questioned cutting off groups without more warning. Ultimately, he voted with the rest of Council.

“Would it have been better to set a date?” Roddey asked.

Earlier in his time with the group, Council phased out funding for nonprofits.

“It was like a weaning the baby off the bottle type deal versus a just cut and dry, this year we’re not going to do anything for you,” Roddey said.

Johnson said he believes his group and the advisory committee have been clear with where they are headed for some time.

“This money, in my opinion, would be better spent on other things to create a new event,” he said.

“When we talk about these grants and using hospitality tax dollars for marketing grants, the goal is to grow hospitality tax through marketing. When an organization has been having an event for five, 10, 15, 20 years, that is an established event.”

With the specific groups missing out on funding this year, Johnson believes they had plenty of time to prepare.

“I don’t think we’re weaning the baby off the bottle,” he said. “I think we’re weaning the pre-teen off the bottle at this point, with most of these organizations.”

This story was originally published August 24, 2017 at 11:49 AM with the headline "Enough is enough, they said. York County won’t fund a major Lake Wylie tourism spot.."