NATCHEZ — A few statements at a recent tourism meeting were misleading, local officials say.

During the March Natchez Convention Promotion Commission meeting, Warren Reuther said by increasing tourism tax receipts from 2007 to 2008, his company was eligible for a $60,000 bonus.

The tourism tax receipts for 2008 topped out at $1,018,972.

Reuther, president of the Natchez Convention Center management group New Orleans Hotel Consultants, said the tourism tax revenue increased because the number of conventions increased.

Tourism Director Connie Taunton said Reuther cannot claim full responsibility for that.

“All of the tourism tax revenues were not all generated by the New Orleans Hotel Management Group,” she said. “You have to take into consideration that food tourism tax generates more than our room revenue tax does.”

But the convention center derives a benefit.

Natchez Convention Center Director Walter Tipton said the management group’s contract says that if the tourism tax receipts exceed $800,000 in any given year, Reuther’s company is eligible for a bonus.

However, it’s also written in the contract that all bonus funds be funneled back into the convention center for operating expenses.

The tax receipt number dictates the amount of the bonus, but the bonus can never exceed $60,000.

“He didn’t turn down the $60,000,” Taunton said.

Reuther reiterated late last week that he did.

“I didn’t take it,” he said.

Tipton said once the money covers operating expenses, any additional money can be used toward marketing.

Reuther said during his PowerPoint presentation to the Natchez Convention Promotion Commission on March 19 the $60,000 was used for several improvements.

Taunton said some of the things he said were less-than truthful.

“It was misleading for some (things),” she said.

Reuther said the money provided for the United Mississippi Bank ATM in the building and a vending machine.

Tipton said both of those items were paid for by the individual companies, and UMB is actually paying the convention center a commission.

Reuther also said upgrades on computer systems and 250 place settings were purchased through the incentive bonus.

But that’s not entirely true, Tipton said.

“There’s not a direct tie between the $60,000 and those items,” he said.

All incentive money goes into the operating expense fund, and those three items were paid for from the operating fund.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean it was 2008’s incentive money, Tipton said.

Finally, Reuther said the incentive money was used to fund sales trips to Baton Rouge and Jackson.

Tipton said once operating expenses are covered, any leftover money can go toward marketing.

One trip to Jackson for an education-related luncheon garnered two conventions.

The first is a regional education meeting scheduled for June. Tipton said the Natchez-Adams School District is hammering out the details for that convention.

The other is a three-night educational planning convention comprised of 400 people slated for October.