§ 164. Applications for and approval of matching funds to tourist
promotion agencies. (a) The commissioner is hereby authorized to match
funds expended by recognized tourist promotion agencies and to set
reasonable deadlines for the submission of applications for each fiscal
year covered by appropriations in order to assist such agencies in the
financing of their recognized advertising programs. Before any such
funds may be expended, the tourist promotion agency shall have made
application to the department for such funds, and shall have therein set
forth the schedule, budget, scope, and theme of the proposed advertising
program to be undertaken for the purpose of encouraging and stimulating
tourist travel, resort, vacation, culture and convention activities in
the county or counties within its area. Said application shall further
state, under oath or affirmation, with evidence thereof satisfactory to
the department, the amount of funds held by, or committed or subscribed
to, the tourist promotion agency for the purposes herein described and
the amount of matching funds for which application is made, and provided
that all advertising purchased with funds appropriated under this act
shall follow central conceptual themes used by the department in its
advertising for state tourism promotion including using any logotype or
similar advertising construct in use by the department.

(b) In reviewing such applications, the commissioner may select from
among competing or overlapping applications the application or
applications that the commissioner considers to be of greater benefit to
a given area and the welfare of the people of the state. Further, the
commissioner shall select from among filed applications those
applications which the commissioner considers to be most in accord with
the guidelines established for the fiscal year in which the funds are to
be expended. If the commissioner determines that an application does not
meet the guidelines, the tourist promotion agency submitting such shall
be notified of its rejection and the reasons therefor by certified mail.
A tourist promotion agency whose application has been rejected may
resubmit the application to meet the guidelines determined by the
commissioner. The resubmitted application shall be postmarked within two
weeks of the date of receipt of notice of failure of its initial
application. After review of a submitted or resubmitted application, if
satisfied that the program of the tourist promotion agency appears to be
in accord with the purposes of this act, the commissioner shall
authorize in writing the payment of matching funds appropriated pursuant
to this act to such tourist promotion agency equal to funds allocated by
such agency to the program described in its application, provided,
however, that such matching grant shall not exceed an amount equal to
five per centum of the matching grant appropriation for each county
represented by such agency for the purposes set forth in this act.
Provided that sufficient funds are appropriated, no such grant shall be
less than either twenty thousand dollars per county represented by such
tourist promotion agency or the amount of funds held by, or committed or
subscribed to such tourist promotion agency for the purposes described
in its application, whichever sum is less. No such minimum grant shall
allow the awarding of matching funds for applications other than those
meeting the guidelines established by the department.

(c) No application submitted by a tourist promotion agency shall be
approved unless the funds of such agency allocated to the program
described in its application are both:

(1) equal to or greater than eight thousand dollars for each county
represented by such agency, and

(2) equal to or less than five per centum of the total matching funds
appropriation for each county represented by such tourist promotion
agency.

(d) No state funds granted to a tourist promotion agency pursuant to
this act may be used for travel, food, lodging, entertainment,
transportation or expenses unrelated to the approved advertising
program. A regional advertising program as described in paragraph one of
subdivision (c) of section one hundred sixty-two of this article may
include those personal service administrative expenses actually
attributable to such program, provided, however, that such expenses
shall not exceed twenty percent of the total budget of such regional
advertising program and provided further that such expenses shall be
approved by no less than one-half of the counties within such region.

(e) Applications required by this section shall be submitted only upon
forms provided by the department. Such forms shall contain a statement
of the guidelines which the commissioner shall use to establish
priorities among applications. Such guidelines shall be established by
the commissioner on an annual basis and, once established, shall not be
changed until the following year.

(f) The department shall set aside no more than thirty percent of the
total local assistance appropriation for tourism matching funds to
create regional advertising program bonuses payable to tourist promotion
agencies. Such bonus shall be based on a formula to be developed by the
department, which shall take into account the number of counties
participating in a regional advertising program with respect to the
number of counties within the department tourism region in which that
tourist promotion agency is located and the percentage of which qualify
for a match pursuant to this section to be expended by the tourist
promotion agency for the purposes of the regional advertising program.
Bonuses paid for regional advertising shall be subject to the same
restrictions described in this article for matching funds, and shall
further be dedicated to the sole purposes of the regional advertising
program. The bonus paid to each tourist promotion agency shall not
exceed twenty percent of the amount budgeted by such agency for each
regional advertising program. Nothing in this article shall prohibit a
tourist promotion agency from receiving regional bonus funding for
participation in regional advertising programs as described in paragraph
two of subdivision (c) of section one hundred sixty-two of this article
in addition to funding for participation in a regional advertising
program as described in paragraph one of subdivision (c) of section one
hundred sixty-two of this article.

(g) If the matching funds requested in the applications exceed the
appropriation, the commissioner shall allocate available funds on a
prorated basis. Such proration shall apply to originally approved as
well as resubmitted and subsequently approved applications.