A reduction in bed tax revenue allocated to the Blair County Convention Center factored into the facility’s end-of-year balance of $46,000 in the black, its lowest amount since the 2020 and 2021 fiscal years when the center was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Operational expenses also factored into the center’s lower bottom line, including higher-than-budgeted personnel costs associated with food and beverage services and maintenance and repairs.

A financial report presented Wednesday to the authority which manages the convention center showed 2025’s revenue coming in at $2.45 million, short of a $2.53 million budget projection.

Expenses for 2025, while less than revenue, came in at $2.4 million, which exceeded the budget projection of $2.37 million.

Convention center CEO Tom Schilling, while reviewing the numbers that are subject to a forthcoming annual audit, pointed to food and beverage revenue coming in at $1.52 million, which was $174,000 less than projected. The drop in revenue was linked to events that were cut back, lost or rescheduled and that would include a 400-person conference that Pennsylvania Head Start canceled in November and rescheduled for March.

Authority member Ron Beatty also pointed to higher money for maintenance and repairs and commended Schilling and facilities manager Steve Despot for reliance on a schedule for future improvements.

The 2025 financial report showed the facility spending $109,175 on maintenance and repairs, double the budget projection of $55,200. Expenses included lighting upgrades which are expected to help reduce future utility costs.

In the 2026 budget, Schilling budgeted $239,560 for utilities, about $3,000 more than the $236,569 recorded in 2025, which was about $16,000 higher than 2024’s utility expenses.

Schilling said the 2026’s projected utility costs account for the convention center’s loss of a summer wrestling workshop, which required significant air conditioning, as well as locked-in utility rates and the lighting upgrade.

As for the bed tax revenue, the 2025 financial report showed the convention center receiving $76,574, far short of the $120,000 amount that was budgeted and less than half of the convention center’s $198,633 allocation in 2024.

The convention center’s decrease in bed tax revenue reflects an early 2025 decision by county commissioners to decertify Explore Altoona as the county’s tourism promotion agency and to end a 2016 agreement governing division of bed tax revenue by percentage amounts.

Subsequently, commissioners certified Discover Blair County as the county’s tourism promotion agency and indicated that in 2026, the convention center will receive $150,000 in bed tax revenue.

No further adjustments were made to the center’s 2025 allocation.

Based on the anticipated $150,000 allocation, the convention center’s newly adopted 2026 budget indicates that the facility will end 2026 with a balance of $172,000, based on revenue projected at $2.68 million and expenses projected at $2.51 million.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.