Following a brief hiatus through the winter holiday, Cadiz-Trigg County Tourism and its commission opened 2026 with good news Thursday afternoon, when Calhoun and Company’s Debbie Fuller revealed a clean audit — and considerable growth — for fiscal year 2025.
Revenue, she said, finished above $861,000, with 74% driven by restaurant tax, 19% by transient room tax and 6% through matching funds.
Expenses crested $760,000, with 36% of that going to advertising and promotional costs, 21% going toward an interlocal revenue share with Cadiz-Trigg County Parks & Recreation, 17% going toward salaries, 7% going toward the capital project for visitor kiosks, 6% going toward planned events, and the final 13% divided among a number of minimal categories.
Of note, Fuller said 2024 saw the entity realize a $50,000 loss for the year, while 2025 finished with a $98,000 profit. Part of that, she said, was made possible through a final ARPA tranche that provided the kiosks to the community, while Executive Director Beth Sumner said matching funds increased from roughly $12,000 to about $50,000 following the state’s inclusion of Trigg County’s many campgrounds.
Fuller also confirmed that restaurant tax collection was up $80,000 from June 2024 to June 2025, meaning locals went out to eat more, and more visitors decided to stop in and around Cadiz.
A negative, however, is that Fuller and Sumner both cautioned that transient room tax went down about $20,000 — and that slide is expected to continue through the rest of fiscal year 2026, and perhaps beyond.
Furthermore, struggles continue with AirBnb.
Expenses, Fuller added, were down roughly $40,000 — as Sumner continues to shred costs through reduced computer services and subscriptions, unnecessary postage and other redundancy concerns.
Advertising expenditures were also drastically reduced, and instead refocused in other areas.
Fuller did mention two “significant deficiencies” that continue to “trend in the right direction” — continued documentation of credit card expenditures with attached matching invoices, and a need for more internal controls on approved invoices.
In other tourism news:
+ Edge Media Group’s Becky Williamson and Cindy Allen Lax delivered a thorough presentation of what will likely be the next advertising and social media campaign for Cadiz-Trigg County Tourism and its website: GoCadiz.com.
The board took no action on the lengthy proposal, but board chair Matt Ladd did ask Sumner to make a detailed list of digital and legacy media wants and needs, and bring that back to the body for review. Williamson and Lax unveiled a smorgasbord of potential ideas and services that could be implemented, in order to streamline and project the “GoCadiz” message through southern Indiana, southern Illinois, northwest Tennessee, eastern Kentucky and southern Ohio.
+ Ladd also confirmed that, last week, Trigg County Parks & Recreation met with the Cadiz-Trigg County Leadership Class in special session — and agreed to pay up to $5,000 in new engineering fees for the Renaissance Stage teardown and remodel. An amphitheatre remains in play.
+ Sumner also confirmed that the Trigg County Recreation Complex will play host to at least two disc golf tournaments this year, one in March and the other in September, and that a recent group of disc-golfing YouTubers called the course “a hidden gem in west Kentucky.”
+ Sumner said she purchased a “GoCadiz” advertisement for the Nashville, Tennessee, market during Thanksgiving 2025. It streamed on NBC’s Peacock, and reached more than 185,000 impressions.
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