Tourism tax dollars do not pay for the RTIC, and under state law cannot. This page follows three separate funding streams downtown, the votes that created each, and the places the record connects them.
Stream 1: The Business Improvement District
Council created the Downtown Business Improvement District June 11, 2024, 6–1, Kim Roney the lone no. A new property assessment (~8.8¢ per $100) raises ~$1.2M/year, projected $1.8M for 2026, spent on “safety and cleanliness” by an appointed, unelected board. (City project page · Watchdog)
Who runs it: the operating contract went (5–1, Roney no) to the Asheville Downtown Improvement District, a nonprofit created by the Asheville Downtown Association, the Area Chamber of Commerce, and a California BID consultancy, with the same executive director running both the Downtown Association and the ADID. The board council appointed (6–1, Roney no; she pulled it from the consent agenda) is anchored by hotel and commercial property interests: the Foundry Hotel, McKibbon Hospitality, property management firms. Council member Antanette Mosley holds a non-voting seat. (BPR)
The ambassadors are cleaners and helpers by charter: unarmed, no citation power, real services (needle disposal, Narcan, wayfinding).434 wellness checks and 42 emergency calls in their first seven months, trained in part by APD. The coalition opposing the BID asked at the hearings, “clean for who and safe for who?” No ambassador misconduct has been documented since launch; the structural question isn’t misconduct, it’s who governs public space. (828NewsNow first-year review · BPR on the opposition)
Stream 2: The Tourism Development Authority
The Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority collects a 6% occupancy tax (roughly $34–41M a year) and by state law spends two-thirds on tourism marketing and administration. Its board is dominated by lodging interests (current chair: a hotel GM); its CEO’s compensation tops $450K. (BPR · Watchdog)
Criticism of the allocation is on the record (County Commission chair Brownie Newman called the allocation “outrageous… such a disservice to this community”), and 2026’s SB 484, signed in June, prohibits occupancy-tax spending on public safety, affordable housing, education, and infrastructure unless the legislature says otherwise. The TDA does not fund surveillance.
Stream 3: The RTIC
The $1.14M is a DOJ earmark; the 7.5-year Axon contract is Asheville’s own obligation (What Is the RTIC). No BID or TDA dollars touch it. (The county’s side of the network runs on a different stream: federal forfeiture money, about $988,000 to the Sheriff’s Office over eight reported years, tracked on Buncombe County. APD has its own: the Department of Justice paid the Asheville Police Department $325,303 in equitable sharing in federal FY2022 alone, after $28,357 (FY2017), $32,191 (FY2020), and $45,408 (FY2021) (DOJ).) What the RTIC does take from downtown is different: cameras. Its voluntary camera-registration program recruits exactly the businesses the BID assesses and the Chamber organizes.
Where the record connects them
- The Chamber recruited for the surveillance network by name. Its February 2023 “Public Safety for All” campaign explicitly invited businesses to “plug into Buncombe County’s Community Camera Registry Program” (the Fusus network) and to lobby council for public-safety funding. Explore Asheville, the TDA’s marketing arm, hosted the same campaign material. That’s the documented TDA-adjacent touchpoint: advocacy, not funding.
- A September 2023 business letter and the sheriff’s response. A September 2023 letter from ~40 restaurant, hotel, and business owners demanded visible police presence and “removal of vagrants from public property and our city streets”; the Sheriff answered with a $186K downtown patrol proposal that included a Real Time Intelligence Center officer. (Citizen Times via Yahoo)
- The 2022 plan to wire downtown businesses into Fusus at $60/camera/year mostly didn’t materialize: fewer than 20 downtown business cameras as of early 2023. The RTIC’s camera registration drive repeats it.
- The same groups oppose both. Food & Beverage United, the DSA, Firestorm: the anti-BID coalition of 2024 is the anti-RTIC coalition of 2026.
The voting pattern: one table
| Vote | Result | The no |
|---|---|---|
| Fusus interlocal (Jan 2023) | 4–1 | Roney |
| BID creation (Jun 2024) | 6–1 | Roney |
| ADID operating contract (Jan 2025) | 5–1 | Roney |
| BID board appointments (Apr 2025) | 6–1 | Roney |
| RTIC equipment grant (Mar 2025) | 6–1 | Roney |
| RTIC $1.14M + Axon contract (May 2026) | 6–1 · 6–1 | Roney |
| Private check-in meetings | 6 of 7 support | Roney (The pre-meeting check-in sessions) |
Roney voted no on each.
Watch items
- The G20 finance ministerial was held Aug 29 to Sept 1, 2026, with the TDA’s Explore Asheville as promotional lead. Whether any security camera additions or data-sharing agreements from that weekend remain in place has not been published; it is a records question (Records Center).
- The BID’s first renewal (3-year contract + renewals) and its board minutes: does camera-registry promotion appear?
- Candidate questions: Should a council member hold a seat on the BID operator’s board? (Antanette Mosley does, non-voting, while seeking re-election.) Will candidates commit to publishing the RTIC’s registered-camera list and the BID’s full financials?
Related: What Is the RTIC · Election 2026 · The pre-meeting check-in sessions · Get Involved