By Tyler Pruett, Managing Editor
RAINSVILLE, Ala. — One responsibility facing each municipal government every year is deciding upon a budget for their prospective cities. This helps ensure that each program receives necessary funding to maintain operations throughout the following year.
Sometimes this can lead to a contentious debate, and one that has embroiled both Rainsville and Fort Payne recently is the issue of Chamber of Commerce funding.
While many people may not realize it, our local chambers provide vital services to both businesses and citizens within their respective cities. One might think of these organizations as a liaison between businesses, the city government, and the citizens in which they serve.
Our chambers also help promote local, small businesses; many of which lack the resources or funds for large scale advertising and promotion of events.
At last week’s meeting of the Rainsville city government, the council and mayor approved a $9,000 increase in the funds allocated to the chamber’s budget. While an increase sounds like support, this increase was to simply replace funds that were removed from the chamber’s budget last September.
Last year, the Rainsville Chamber’s budget totalled $36,000, while the new budget passed in September only allocated $27,000; a full $9,000 short of last year’s allocation. Then Mayor Nick Jones was the only voice against cutting the chamber’s budget. Luckily the increase was recently approved unanimously.
In Fort Payne, when the previous council developed the budget for the current year, Fort Payne’s Chamber of Commerce was completely left out of the budget. Last night, at a work session of the city council, it was decided that the $45,000 would be added back to the budget to fund the chamber.
While much of the work done by the chamber is behind the scenes, their work is essential to stimulating our local economy, along with being the voice of businesses who may not be large enough to afford funds to spend on advertising. It’s also notable that Fort Payne’s chamber handles the annual Christmas Parade, which draws thousands of spectators.
It is important that these organizations adapt to modern technology, and continue to be effective in the future, especially if taxpayer’s dollars are to be spent on local chambers of commerce. But if these organizations were to disappear or be drastically downsized, citizens and businesses would quickly notice the void left by the absence of these vital organizations.
