Harrisburg Report: Civil War Museum Overspends on Salaries

The National Civil War Museum spends nearly two-thirds of its funding from county hotel tax revenues on salaries, with only 15% going to marketing, according to Harrisburg, Pa., Mayor Eric Papenfuse.

The Harrisburg-based museum provided the data, said Papenfuse.

Dauphin County commissioners allocate a portion of hotel tax revenues for marketing of the capital city itself.

The Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau distributes and allocates some of the funds, with much of it going to the museum in an agreement negotiated with Stephen Reed, the city's mayor from to 1982 to 2009.

The City Council Tuesday night unanimously supported Papenfuse's call to suspend hotel tax allocations to the museum, saying the money should help market the city itself, not just one facility.

Papenfuse said the city, which last year narrowly avoided Chapter 9 bankruptcy, can no longer afford to subsidize the museum, which pays only $1 per year in rent to the city for a building that he said could bring in at least $500,000 in annual revenue.