the $60 million dollars in sales tax that is generated by the hospitality industry in Erie County helps to keep property taxes down

Then a question is, what potion of that $60 million sales tax (and $350M wages) are the result of tourism due to things lured here by the CVB (conventions & meetings, events such as NCAA basketball, Bassmaster, Empire State Games, national bowling and hockey tourneys, etc.) and how much would happen otherwise for people visiting on their own to see the area, or visiting their kids at area colleges, or coming to visit people here they know (ex-pats visitng family, etc.), or Canadians coming to shop or to stay overnight to catch a filght at the airport?

In hindsight, does the industry wish it had created some sort of assessment that avoided passing these funds through County government? Given the events of the past few years, the answer is obviously yes.

Why should that question be limited to hindsight? How about an amicable divorce by just phasing out the bed tax over next few years during which time the industry can put in place a trade group and remove politics from the equation? The industry would have less uncertainty, more flexibility, and this ongoing controversy would just end.

Buffalo Pundit - I agree completely, the hoteliers knew who they were getting in bed with when they had the tax passed. It makes more sense to fill the budget gaps first, especially if it prevents Erie County from closing the books. Maybe the CVB would be better off repealing the tax and working out a cooperative agreement with the area hotel owners, but I have a feeling that many of the owners wouldn't agree to pay anything to the CVB unless it was mandated by the government.

We need to seriously look at all the taxes and fees that enter into the County Government's coffers to see if citizens are really getting what they deserve for the money that they are putting into the system. I have a feeling that we will find a great deal of waste, misappropriation of funds, and pork spending on political allies, fixing these would also bridge the budget gap and could put some money back in the taxpayer's wallets.

We need to put financial governance into the Government. The further away the spender is from the source of the money, the easier it is to spend frivolously. This goes for the County, the City, and the CVB, they all need to justify expenses before levying any more taxes or fees on the good citizens of Erie County.

We all have our entitlements! Just like every other county entity, there is no accountability for how funds are used and absolutely no measures of success or faillure. I wish that they would do away with the bed tax and fund tourism out of the general fund, that way the CVB could stop crying about how they can stop making excuses and start doing something for WNY. I think the posters and flyers at the airport are a good example of how poorly the CVB sells the Buffalo / Niagara Region. I travel to a lot of cities and see how well they sell the city, not just a couple of small attractions.

What I've always thought too, and BP expressed it better than I would have:

If hoteliers didn't want the money to go through the county legislature, they shouldn't have lobbied for a bed tax. Instead, they could have banded together and paid a portion of each stay to an independent tourism promotion entity that is outside the realm of politics, not funded by a tax of any sort, and would have avoided what happened to the CVB in this instance. Then they could have bought all the billboards in Toronto their hearts desired.

Also, there's nothing stopping them from doing so right now.

It should be repeated over and over every time the CVB complains.

I directly book several conventions a year that generate over25,000 room nights annually. The most important resource that we utilize when selecting the city is the convention and visitors bureau. We as convention planners know that our clients pay a huge tax to occupy a sleeping room. We also expect something back for the tax that we pay. When a city is marketing their destination they are increasing our attendance at our meetings. If someone reads an article in the New York Times about a city they are traveling to they may be more apt to attend the meeting or better yet seek out the tourist destinations mentioned in the article.

We look to the cvb's to assist us with registration, information for attendees, coordinate local volunteers, greet us at the airport, make sure we have taxi's alerted of our presence and our itinerary. We ask them where to hold off site events. They assist us in marketing our groups presence and attendance through press releases to the media. They assist us in securing convention and exhibit space that often needs to be packaged in the room rates.

We don't mind paying the tax when we get something in return, most importantly: SERVICE. Service costs money. If we see a tax being charged and get very little in return we will go to a destination that will gladly provide it. If meeting planners new that the tax their attendees are paying is going to everything but tourism they would not come here. When the Buffalo Niagara CVB's budget was drastically cut during the initial crisis, I read about it in several convention and meeting periodicals. I'm not the only meeting planner that read it. It spread like wild fire.

Buffalo's competing cities (Rochester,Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Cleveland et al) were licking their chops when they were bidding against us for a convention. They could confidently pitch their services that we could not provide.

Besides service, convention planners expect a city to have a first class and functional convention center. We all know that the bed tax typically funds development of a meeting facility. If we know that our tax is not being put toward new development or better yet, up keep of what you have, what kind of building or service will be provided to us?

By using the CVBs logic, I should get a percentage of the bed tax because so many of wife's family had to fly in from out of town and stay in hotels to go to our wedding... Does anybody else think that until the tourism industry is mandated to paying a living wage that giving the CVB is a self-defeating proposition?

Only in Buffalo & Erie County can County Legislatures get away with stealing the Bed Tax money. It's really unbelievable. This money is generated by out-of-towners staying in hotels - doesn't come from you & I or our property taxes. This money is suppose to go to market the Buffalo region...BUT NO, those losers in the Erie County Legislature take the money for themselves and their little pork projects. These people should be thrown in jail!!! Or publically flogged at Thursday at the Square.

Also, the CVB is getting a $1.3 million funding increase,100% over last year, and will fund the Film Commission to the tune of $150,000 out of that money. It's a compromise...the best we can do as long as people continually send people like Marinelli and Whyte back to the leg year after year after year. Keep voting for the same incumbent and unimaginative legislators, assemblymen, and common councilmen. It's really got us pointing in the right direction!

Pork projects in Erie County? You mean how 88.54% of all County Wide revenue is utilized to fund mandated state expenses? Counties in New York are primarily chartered as delivery vehicles for state services, not as funders of the arts and tourism.

http://www.erie.gov/exec/budget_info.asp

There are greater issue sat work here. Do people want libraries, parks, and roads and staffed prisons or billboards in Toronto? No matter what the leg does at this point, someone gets screwed. When they implement performance based budgeting as required by the 2006 revised county charter, we might have some progress on lowering the cost of delivery of mandated services. Until then, Healy is gonna have to go begging for money at CFGB, Wendt, Oishei, and Baird like everyone else.

brandon.. just wondering if you can read.... look at the Budgets for similar cities (Cleveland, Pittsburgh).. and realize that ours is 1/4 of theirs...and then tell me how the Buffalo cvb is suppose to "get off their butts" and market Buffalo Niagara when OUR BUDGET IS A FRACTION OF OTHER CITIES IN OUR COMPETITIVE SET?? Seriously dood.. get off bro and study your high school economics book

Cut the film commission... wow.. smooth move.. this whole town has got a long way to go... i do like the idea of a private entity marketing the area..take the gov't out of it.

We called our Erie County Representatives, We asked for them to take the Bed Tax off budget and give the CVB the full amount They responded that it was to late, they already passed the budget but there is $150,000 for them it just wasnt line itemed for them

We also asked for them to support a new convention and conference center at a rewatered ohio basin.

Bradon...um, I used to work directly with the CVB in a past life. The CVB is responsible for bringing groups/events (like the NCAA tournament, conventions, meetings, etc...), as well as marketing the region's attractions. There mission is to help fill hotel rooms. I remember reading an article over the summer about how the entire months of July and August local hotels were sold out - most of due to groups/events brought by the CVB. I agree the entire city of Buffalo needs to be made visitor ready, but that's way more than what the CVB does. The CVB also works with journalists and media outlets trying to seek coverage for our area. They bring group tour buses too. And besides, how much advertising can these folks do, when they have no money?

and chik... I think shutting down the film commission would do more to reinforce the stereotype that "Buffalo blows" then change the tide... we should just lay down and die?? Please.. its a morale booster.. who didn't get a kick out of Bruce Almighty

That roaring noise? BPundit back-peddling. Nice to see.

Chiklil.... you're extremly ignorant....

I love the posts about low wage: hospitality, food service, and retail jobs... Granted employment in the industry might pay $28,000 a year or you might only make $9.00 an hour at bass pro and have no paid time off at a restaurant, but by no means underestimate the spending power that $28,000 holds

(X2 for a household and you have $56,000... not bad for Buffalo)

and the fact that successful economies and specifically LARGE CITIES have income and wage variety... YOU HAVE TO HAVE LOW WAGE JOBS IN SOCIETY.. and in my personal opinion... jobs like these are sorely lacking in Downtown Buffalo...variety is key to a healthy economy... not everybody is gonna work for a fortune 500 company.. you may come back to earth now

I agree with BG's summary about big picture, except "unimaginative" isn't my beef about our legislators.

Sometimes White, Marinelli et al are quite imaginative but in the wrong direction - such as the apprenticeship law.

chiknlil - you obviously don't understand the role of the CVB in the hospitality. Do you think conventions & meetings, and events such as the NCAA basketball, ESPN Bassmaster, Empire State Games, national bowling and ice hockey tournaments just land here? That's what any city's CVB does...bring these folks to town. They bid on these events, and hopefully "win."

Brian 123 - the hospitality industry is spread out across many sectors (restaurants, hotels, shops, attractions, etc...). Using your thought process, people at McDonald's, Walden-Gallaria, Anchor Bar or a shop on Elmwood should be paid $15 an hour, strictly because the CVB receives money from getting people to stay in hotels??? I don't get it!

People have to realize that the CVB big job is bringing groups events to town. They also spend $$$ on consumer advertising, marketing to bus & tour groups, conduct local, regional and national media relations efforts, web & e-mail marketing, and they work with local colleges in getting the students and families to explore Buffalo.

I recently went to the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, as I was down there for a concert. How did I find out about the Warhol? General media (absolutely), went to the VisitPittsburgh website (found that it was close to where I was at), a good Pittsburgh friend told me about, somewhere I have a brochure (probably picked that up at the visitors center by Erie), and I am an art fanatic (so I must have read about the museum somewhere). You see, success in marketing has many fathers.