The Poulsbo Lodging Tax Advisory Committee is right to push for spending down the bar on what has become a large reserve of hotel/motel tax revenues. Why the tight purse strings?

City Councilman Ed Stern is right to comment that Poulsbo isn’t using the money as it is intended — to promote tourism.

We also agree with City Councilman Dale Rudolph that a cap should be put on how much the reserve account holds, but feels the suggested $50,000 is simply too high. If Poulsbo opts to set large amounts of money aside for the upcoming museum or another project, it should at least wait until the wheels of progress are clearly driving forward before sticking dollars in the spokes. While having some reserves to assist future projects is a good idea, holding onto funds that are supposed to put “heads in beds” isn’t doing anything to promote tourism.

Even so, a middle ground is the prudent route.

The $15,000 benchmark proposed by the Poulsbo Community Services Committee seems to be a reasonable amount. Not too high, not too low.

At this level, the city will still have some money set aside for larger projects that are coming down the tracks and local businesses get a bigger boost through improved tourism advertising.

This, in return, will put more heads in beds and ultimately create additional lodging taxes, which is how this is supposed to work in the first place.