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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Bradon - You say.."we"....who is "we"...is that the liberal way of saying that all special interest's need to be fulfilled?
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?
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.
In 2005, the county faced a $200 million deficit that it's not allowed to maintain by law. It had to plug the hole, and nonessential items like CVB funding unfortunately get cut, along with concomitant tax hikes and other budget cuts. That's reality. If that bed tax wasn't there to help plug the hole, then everyone in Erie County would probably now be paying _the_ highest (rather than _one of the highest_) sales tax in the country, and property taxes would have also gone up.
The CVB isn't the only county-funded entity that's hurting right now.
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.
Also, you might consider holding off on popping an email out to Cindy Locklear or Dr. Barry, since they only have another 2 weeks or so in office. Just a thought. (Ed Rath III, and Tim Wroblewski will be replacing them respectively).
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.
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?
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.
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.
The bed tax was instituted in Erie County in the 1970s as a way to pay off the debt on the Convention Center. It was then raised in the 1980s to its current level of five percent -- at the request of the hotels -- as a way to self-fund tourism sales and marketing. This is a case of an industry essentially taxing itself with the intent of NOT going to government for a hand-out. This is a market-driven, sustainable strategy that should be applauded by people who decry government straying from its core mission of providing essential services. 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. Our predecessors at the CVB and in the hotel community obviously expected local government to honor the spirt and intent of this legislation. Sadly, that has not been the case for four budget cycles. From the time the bed tax was raised to five percent in 1987 through 2004, the CVB received 53 percent of the total bed tax collected. This agreement was honored for 17 years until the "Red-Green" budget fiasco of February 2005. In 2008, the CVB is slated to receive just 36 percent of the approximately $7.2 million that will be collected by Erie County's hotels in 2007. This $2.6 million budget will leave Buffalo well behind nearby cities such as Cleveland, Columbus and Pittsburgh -- all with budgets three to four times the size of the Buffalo Niagara CVB. Local hotels and attractions employ thousands of people throughout Erie County and have a mechanism in place that was designed to ensure that these folks stay gainfully employed. It's a shame and a travesty that our elected officials continue to vote against the interest of the working men and women of Erie County by shortsightedly misappropriating the bed tax for purposes -- internship programs? satelllite offices? -- well outside the scope of its intended use.
And by the way, the $60 million dollars in sales tax that is generated by the hospitality industry in Erie County helps to keep property taxes down. Re-investing the bed tax in tourism sales and marketing -- as it was intended -- would help to grow that sales tax number. Short term fixes like using the bed tax to fill budget holes is clearly not the way to balance a budget, grow our economy or ease the burden on Erie County taxpayers.
Ed Healy Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau
"You mean how 88.54% of all County Wide revenue is utilized to fund mandated state expenses" If this doesn't say consolidate Erie and Buffalo Gov't, I don't know what does. All these politicians fighting over less than 15% of the budget. It's time to speak with one voice(or atleast fewer voices). Consolidation would be our bigest and cheapest marketing effort because Buffalo would be a major region with over a million people. Currently, Buffalo doesn't even come on the radar when CEOs are looking to expand or relocate due to our size.
Ed - what are the budgets for the Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Columbus CVBs? Does the CVB collect any public money from any other source - state or federal?
Darwin Martin House, the Burchfield-Penney Art Center, Graycliff, the Botanical Gardens, the Roycroft Campus, the Nash House Museum, Erie Canal Harbor, the Buffalo Zoo, etc.
Maybe this is part of our problem. This is the best that we have to offer? A Zoo that pales in comparison to places like Columbus, OH. A mediocre Botanical Gardens, a couple of restored Frank Lloyd Wright houses that only attract a relatively small group of tourists, and the Erie Canal Harbor which is still a big dirt construction lot with a big red construction shed. Why come to Buffalo if this is the best that we have to offer? None of these set us apart from other cities, like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Columbus. Maybe we should figure out something to promote that sets us apart from other cities, something that creates a legitimate buzz and incites a positive reaction in people from other places.
I am not convinced that $2.6M is not enough to spend on marketing these antiquated "tourist attractions", you can't continue to throw money at this hoping that it will catch on someday. We need to build a better brand for WNY, something that makes them want to visit. What would you do with the additional $5M? What opportunities would this offer us that aren't being exploited with the current allotment. (that $2.6M does not include grants and sponsorships).
As far as the Film Commission, I wish that we would stop featuring Buffalo in films. All we are doing is perpetuating the negative stereotypes of the city. I don't see a lot of people flocking to Buffalo saying "honey, let's go see where a few scenes from Bruce Almighty were filmed". Hollywood is interested in using Buffalo as the butt of their jokes, and we are paying to continue this. What a waste of money!
Ed - Nice play with the employment angle. I am not sure that most people in the hotel and hospitality industries would consider their $28K a year jobs as gainful employment. Bring in a Fortune 500 headquarters or a major corporate center and then we will talk gainful employment. Hospitality jobs are nice, but they are not the type of jobs that are going to move Buffalo forward, they are the type of jobs that become careers when there is nothing else for the taking. The $60M in sales tax is a drop in the bucket compared to what major companies could do for the area. Quit selling the Darwin Martin house and start focusing on the real money, this is what our area truly needs.
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
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
BuffaloPundit: The Pittsburgh CVB had a budget of $10.9 million in 2007; Cleveland -- $7.5 million; Columbus -- $6.9 million.
The BNCVB received less than $70,000 from the I Love NY Matching Funds Program in 2007 and no Federal funding.
Chik: I don't know what lofty perch you're sitting on, but I'll pass along your observation that hospitality industry jobs don't constitute gainful employment to the members of the local Hotel Motel Association. I'm sure they will beg to differ every time they go the grocery store, pay their rent or buy their kids some clothes.
Tourism in Erie County generates more than $350 million in direct labor income, according to a study conducted by Oxford Economics USA in 2005. To belittle or dismiss this contribution to the local economy is simply asinine.
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."
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?
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.
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.
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