The Pennsylvania Tourism & Lodging Association supports legislation that would merge the Regional Marketing Partnership (RMP) and the Matching Grant Program for the purpose of tourism marketing.
On March 12, 2008, Representative Tom Tangretti (D-Westmoreland) introduced House Bill 2302, which was referred to the House Tourism & Recreational Development Committee.
House Bill 2302 creates two tourism grant programs. The bill was the product of discussions between the PA Tourism Office, PA Association of Convention & Visitors Bureaus, and state legislators. It defines who is eligible for funds under each program, sets guideline requirements, and establishes specific funding percentages of the total appropriation allocated to each program, The bill also provides an appeal process for both the determination of ineligibility for tourist promotion agencies and the grant award decision for the Regional Marketing Partnership.
Act 50 of 1961 created the Matching Grant Program and allowed the State to provide matching grants to local and regional tourist promotion agencies for destination marketing. The Regional Marketing Partnership was created in the 1990s. There was no state law that governed the Regional Marketing Partnership and determined how regional marketing grants were to be awarded by the PA Department of Community & Economic Development.
In the past, there was a separate line item for each program in the PA Department of Community & Economic Development budget. Under House Bill 2302, the two line items were merged into one with the following funding distribution:
- Fiscal year 2008-2009: Matching Grant portion is 63% and the RMP portion is 37%;
- Fiscal Year 2009-2010: Matching Grant portion is 57% and the RMP portion is 43%;
- Fiscal year 2010 and thereafter: Matching Grant portion is 50% and the RMP portion is 50%
The PA House of Representatives unanimously approved (199-0) House Bill 2302 on June 11, 2008, and the State Senate unanimously endorsed (50-0) the measure on July 4, 2008. Governor Rendell signed the bill into law as Act No. 50 of 2008 on July 4, 2008.
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