by Kenneson 6 Replies latest jw friends
In Jefferson County, Texas, Jehovah's Witnesses are listed as one of 20 groups that will share in occupancy tax money to promote tourism-related events and projects.
"Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, $10,000 bid fee for convention."
I suppose their convention will boost the economy by filling up the hotels and restaurants, etc.
See "20 groups divy up hotel occupancy taxes"
Yes, indeedy, they are a non profit organization! How do they get away with it?
Transit-occupancy tax (tot) is generated when people buy a room at a motel. What this article is pointing out is the amount of money generated by a specific city's JW convention in TOT tax. This money is then spent on boosting tourism, chamber of commerce activities, etc. The WTS is not voluntarily giving this money to tourist promotion because this tax is generated by individuals associated with temporary event taking place in the city. In this case of bidding for a convention, everyone has to do it. The money then goes to the same activites listed above. Believe me this is nothing new.
Daniel,
O.K. I'm completely confused. Do Jehovah's Witnesses receive $10,000 from the tax or do they pay $10,000 toward the tax? If the latter, consider this thread re-titled to "Jehovah's Witnesses Pay Tax That Will Be Used To Promote Tourism." I would hardly use the term "rewarded" in that case.
I'm sorry, I must be on crack here... basically cities routinely bid for conventions. THis is in order to reap the transit-occupancy tax that the influx of conventers will bring. In this case, the city is awarding $10,000 to Jehovah's Witnesses - most likely for a series of conventions. This is in order to entice convention managers to bring conventions to cities who need cash (all cities) and have the requisite facilities (centers, hotels, airports, etc). So the cities get TOT tax - but also, the chamber of commerce really wants conventions because more people go out to eat, and spend their money in general. For the society to get this $10,000 is not a big deal - these kind of deals go on everywhere and are completely legit.
Now, how the society handles that money is a differnt matter altogether.... I have no idea where that money goes. I'm guessing into a kitty which is used for bargaining purposes and expenses related to negotioating sweet hotel discounts.
Here is a rundown on transit-occupancy tax (TOT) and how a city bidding for a convention comes out ahead.
1. Bustling City bids $10,000 for JW's to have their convention for 3 weekends.
2. Each convention brings in 3000 people from out of town (those needing hotels).
3. 3000 people need 1500 rooms (on average).
4. 1500 rooms @$60/night = $90,000 x 2 night stays = $180,000 x 3 weekends = $540,000
5. $540,000 in sales for all hotels involved are taxed 7-11% (tax goes to consumer on top of price of room) - this is TOT.
6. $540,000 @9% = $48,600
7. This $48,600 goes to the city where the TOT was generated, and then used (typically) for promoting more tourism.
As you can see, in this hypothetical case, an initial investment of $10,000 is a very smart move for this city (if the convention managers accept).
This doesn't even take into consideration the benefit of local resaurants, which really like it, and participate in funding various associations which share expenses in promotions and so forth. Of course, the conventioneers do put a burden on infrastructure, like transportation, and this has to be figured into the equation. A big this also, is water - but another fee is usually added on to the hotel bill for this. A lot goes into making sure a city can handle this kind of event, as you can imagine, and there is opportunity for money to change hands and palms to be greased, but is very rare since there are so many people involved and it is a relaitvely exposed process.
