ORS 284.131: Commission account; disposition of moneys; exemption from expenditure limitations.

(1) All moneys collected, received by or appropriated to the Oregon Tourism Commission must be deposited into an account established by the commission in a depository bank insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. In a manner consistent with the requirements of ORS chapter 295, the chair of the commission shall ensure that sufficient collateral secures any amount of funds on deposit that exceeds the limits of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s coverage. (2) Subject to the approval of the chair, the commission may invest moneys collected or received by the commission. Investments made by the commission must be limited to investments described in ORS 294.035 (3)(a) to (i). (3) Interest earned on any moneys invested under subsection (2) of this section must be made available to the commission in a manner consistent with the biennial budget of the commission. (4) The commission shall spend state transient lodging tax moneys appropriated to the commission under ORS 320.335 as follows: (a) At least 65 percent must be used to fund state tourism programs. (b) Ten percent must be used for a competitive grant program for projects that further the purpose described in ORS 284.138, which may include tourism-related facilities and tourism-generating events, including sporting events. (c) Twenty percent must be used to implement a regional cooperative tourism program that: (A) Requires fund allocations to focus on creating new business from out-of-state and international markets; (B) Utilizes a regional allocation formula that distributes revenue to regions, the boundaries of which are established by the commission, in proportion to the amount of transient lodging tax revenues collected in each region; (C) Distributes revenue to recipients that are selected by the commission as organizations able to conduct tourism-related marketing for each region; (D) Requires advertising, publications, CD-ROMs, websites, videos and other tourism promotion materials funded through the regional cooperative tourism program to carry the Oregon Tourism Commission logo and marketing tag line; and (E) Encourages funding recipients to incorporate design elements from commission advertising and promotional campaigns, such as fonts, images and other design elements. (5) In funding programs and awarding grants under subsection (4)(a) and (b) of this section, the commission shall consider a demonstrated return on investment, geographic equity and community support. (6) All moneys in the account that are not state transient lodging tax revenues are continuously appropriated to the commission for the purposes of carrying out the functions of the commission. (7) All expenditures from the account are exempt from any state expenditure limitation. [Formerly 285A.274; 2016 c.102 §5]