Alton Postpones Funding Cuts For Great Rivers & Routes After Public Speaks Out

City of Alton - Committee of the Whole Meeting

ALTON – A proposal to slash Alton’s share of funding to the Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau is on hold after city leaders heard concerns from several local residents and business owners.

Alderwoman Patricia Ford proposed a resolution to introduce an ordinance which would make significant changes to the way certain city tax revenues are allocated to local organizations. The most drastic changes affect the amounts Alton pays to Great Rivers & Routes, which Ford has previously claimed receives an unfair amount of financial support from the city.

“Tourism is important for our region, but the City of Alton is carrying more than our fair share of funding for the six-county region that GRRTB represents,” Ford previously stated. “We can’t afford to subsidize the 43 other communities in the GRRTB service area. If these services are truly invaluable, our neighbors will make up the deficit as needed.”

Under Ford’s proposal, the 43% of Hotel Room Tax funds currently allocated to Great Rivers and Routes would be cut to just 15%, and the amount of Food and Beverage Sales Tax proceeds for Great Rivers and Routes would also be drastically cut from 60% to 20%. These funds would be allocated to other organizations or city-operated funds for emergency vehicle replacement, Riverfront Park improvements, and more.

14 public speakers voiced their concerns to Committee of the Whole members for nearly an hour at their April 6, 2026 meeting. Several were downtown business owners who said said promotional efforts by Great Rivers & Routes have been critical in boosting foot traffic and revenues from out-of-town visitors.

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Honeybee Vintage Owner Melissa Bland said she interacts with locals and tourists on a daily basis and “cannot overstate how critical tourism is” for downtown business, adding the adverse affect these cuts would have on city revenues.

“Tourism is the engine that generates these very tax revenues you’re trying to allocate – slashing funding is like cutting off the fuel supply to that engine,” Bland said. “If the city feels that we pay Rivers and Routes too much, or that we’re getting a poor return, then you need to have that discussion with them, not just take a red pen to their funding and hope neighbor cities make up they difference – they will not.”

Alton Main Street Executive Director Sara McGibany said the question is not whether tourism is important for the city, but “whether Alton should be responsible for subsidizing this service across six counties.” She said the organization’s focus has shifted far beyond Alton since its transformation from the Alton Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau into Great Rivers & Routes.

“At one time, Alton was the center of the Bureau’s focus, but as their territory has expanded, the benefits to Alton are becoming increasingly diluted,” McGibany said. “Why is Alton paying in six to twenty times more than any other community when we’re certainly not getting six to twenty times the benefits?”

Great Rivers & Routes President Cory Jobe said that while Alton does invest the most into his organization, it also receives marketing campaigns that are exclusive to Alton. He also said the organization’s efforts generate millions in spending from out-of-town visitors which he warned would be largely eliminated by these funding cuts. He didn’t ask committee members to postpone the item, but to vote it down immediately.

“What happens when all marketing & public relations efforts stop for specifically Alton? … Who will assist the nearly 2,000 visitors from the cruise ships who will be docking at the Port of Alton this summer and fall?” Jobe asked. “An estimated $2.8 million in visitor spending and roughly 2,000 hotel rooms nights are gone in just six months.”

When the resolution came up for a vote, Alderwoman Rosie Brown moved to postpone it until May 15, 2026, which was quickly seconded by Ford, thereby postponing the item.

A full recording of the April 6, 2026 Alton Committee of the Whole meeting is available at the top of this story or on Riverbender.com/video.

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