Dick Bergstrom and Laura Braun spoke at the town board meeting and applauded the Town of Grand Chute moving forward with the room tax. As you may already know, Grand Chute is home to the largest portion of hotels in the Fox Valley. The room tax was designated to help build the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center. Loan payments are $685,000 a year ffor the building. The room tax has generated an average income of $850,000 a year. Over 1 million dollars has been generated in surplus over the past five years. They believe by 2021 the building will be paid off. This is 4 years earlier than projected.
Other facts that were presented included:
- It's estimated the PAC brings in 14.3 million dollars into the Fox Valley each year.
- The education program has touched 20,000 children and 4,000 schools in Wisconsin.
- The arts series have brought in performance groups as far away as Russia.
- The PAC boasts 13 Wisconsin Premiers, including the Lion King.
- The facility is currently operating at 79 percent true-earned revenues. The current national average is 45-55 percent.
