The Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau 2015 budget will remain relatively flat from this year’s spending despite renovations that have temporarily closed the Robinson Center.
The Advertising and Promotion Commission approved a $15,740,488 budget for 2015, which is down 0.1 percent from the projected actual 2014 revenue and expenses of $15,760,499. The projected figure is calculated by using 10 months of 2014 actual numbers and two months of estimated numbers.
While the revenue from Robinson Center is budgeted at $0 next year — down from nearly $200,000 this year — that is made up for by an expected increase of about $370,000 in tax receipts next year.
Tax revenue is budgeted at $12,706,167 for 2015, up from the projected 2014 amount of $12,336,084.
Improvements to Robinson Center began over the summer, and the makeover is set to be completed with the facility reopened for events by December 2016. With its closure, there is an expected uptick in usage of the Statehouse Convention Center for meetings and conferences.
While that extra usage brings an expected $72,000 increase in expenses in the convention center line item, it also brings a $131,000 increase in expected revenue from the convention center, totaling just more than $1.8 million next year.
Payroll is budgeted at $3.5 million — up from the estimated $3.4 million spent on payroll this year. The payroll line item in the 2015 budget includes two new part-time positions and funds for merit-based raises that will vary by position.
“I feel pretty good about where this [budget] stands,” Convention and Visitors Bureau President and Chief Executive Officer Gretchen Hall said after presenting the budget to the commission’s finance committee Tuesday. She said the budget was almost “spot on” with the bureau’s five-year plan.
Hall also announced an increase in parking fees at the bureau’s three parking garages: the River Market parking deck, the Robinson Center garage and the parking deck at Second and Main streets.