This year, a total of 11 applicants will receive grant funding collected from the city of Langley’s lodging tax.
Like other municipalities in the state, Langley imposes a 2% tax on overnight stays to fund tourism promotion or tourism-related facilities or attractions.
Mayor Kennedy Horstman presented the Langley City Council with the requests during a meeting Monday night, which they unanimously approved. Nearly a dozen applicants requested $116,075, but the city only has $56,816 to distribute.
An ad hoc committee recently ranked the requests with considerations such as countywide benefit, shoulder season focus, community economic impact and regenerative tourism, among others.
The temporary committee consists of two representatives from businesses required to collect lodging taxes and two members involved in activities authorized to be funded by the revenue received by those taxes. Previously, the city had a Lodging Tax Advisory Commission that completed this work, but it has since been disbanded.
Because of the limited amount of funds to disburse, no entity received the full amount requested, though some came close.
The Whidbey Island Center for the Arts received the largest amount, at $15,166, with the Orca Network Whale Center a close second at $12,891.
LittleBIGFest and Island Shakespeare Festival both collected $6,000, the Langley Chamber of Commerce got $4,334, Whidbey Island Dance Theater got $3,225, Island County Historical Society got $3,000, Langley Main Street Association got $2,000, Whidbey Island Fair got $1,500, Good Cheer got $1,450 and the Port of South Whidbey got $1,250.
Nicole Whittington-Johnson, executive director of the chamber, was present at the meeting and participated on the ad hoc committee, recusing herself from making a decision on her own application. She said she felt really good about the process and stood behind the committee’s funding decisions.
Councilmember Gail Fleming asked about Langley Lights the Night, a popular drone firework show that happened on the Fourth of July in 2024 but not this year. The chamber is planning to put its tourism grant towards bringing back the show, and Whittington-Johnson responded that it might return the first week of October in 2026.
“We’re watching for weather, but the drones can fly in rain and up to 30 mph wind,” she said. “So we’re not actually too concerned about it being shut down, and it’s an opportunity to move it more into the shoulder season as people are starting to go into that lull between the high summer season and the holiday season.”
Councilmember Chris Carlson wondered how funds were allocated to the different proposals. Whittington-Johnson said members evaluated the applications individually and then later eliminated line items that the funding wasn’t appropriate for, though they tried to give everyone seed money. The grants are meant to be supplemental funds, and applicants were informed they likely wouldn’t get a fully funded request.
As Whittington-Johnson explained, it was a matter of balancing the needs of larger, well-established organizations and events with those that might not be as well known but also want a chance to succeed.
Horstman said in her tenure as mayor, the city’s lodging tax allocation process has happened after the county’s, and she’s unsure if that is a good or bad thing. She suggested reviewing how the city’s program is set up during the first quarter of 2026, which Carlson agreed would be valuable with three new city council members coming onboard.
