Tourism promotion in the Quad Cities and across Illinois will resume early next year. This week, the governor signed a compromise funding bill from the General Assembly that will allow the state to start sending out grants to groups like the Quad Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau.
President and ceo, Joe Taylor, says the bureau usually receives about 18,000 dollars a month from the state, or 220,000 dollars per year. But those payments stopped in July when the long, budget impasse began.
Once the paper work is done, Taylor says local tourism bureaus should start receiving their state grants in January.
Despite the long state funding cut-off, the Quad Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau did not layoff any employees.
He says state tourism grants in Illinois are funded by hotel-motel taxes, and not by taxes on state residents.