Comment on Tybee Island trims nonprofit funding request

What began as a collective request for more than $250,000 in contributions for area nonprofits at the beginning of Tybee Island’s budget process was reduced by City Council members Thursday to somewhere just south of $70,000. The figure comes in lower than Tybee Mayor Jason Buelterman’s preferred level of funding, but leaves the door open for the city to contribute more to its charitable organizations should local property taxes come in higher than anticipated later this year. Buelterman initially pushed for upping the city’s contributions to these organizations from about $52,000 this year to $100,000 in fiscal year 2016, which begins July 1. The mayor said he’ll still be pushing in the future to use some of the city’s growing accommodations tax revenues to support the community’s nonprofit organizations because of the benefit they provide to Tybee residents. “My fight was to get it up to one-fourth of 1 percent of the (six) pennies of the hotel/motel tax,” Buelterman told his fellow council members at a budget workshop Thursday.