LOCAL CVB CHAIR ANNOUNCES NEW TAX INCREASES, TO BE MORE COMPETETIVE???

[AQUAMAN]

Yes, your local Convention and Visitors Bureau, chaired by Barry Neal, today announced that renters of motels/hotels/rooming of any sort, will pay a 5% special tax assessment for the privilege of coming to Ludington starting April 1st, tomorrow....lol. This new tax is "in the spirit of making Ludington more competetive", via having more advertising dollars? Call me silly again, but doesn't anyone think this new increase for renting will sour the tourists more than entice them to come here? Most that come here have been for a long time, with family, friends, and business associates. Making their already shrunken down pocketbook monies shrink even more in value, well, doesn't ring true to being more competitive at all. Mr. Neal calmly reflected this is only about a $3 increase? When's the last time you could rent a motel for $60/nite during July or August? Never! His arithmetic and ideas aren't what I would call constructive and viable for these economic times, but, have we seen anything from City Leaders of late that does make sense when it comes to fees and taxation???

[AQUAMAN]

Dittos RJE, and indeed it will in the end. My customers for fishing have been complaining for years about the over-inflated costs related to hotels/motels for a short stay, and the unfair taxes associated with same. Of late, the last few years, more and more have come to camp out at marinas and elsewhere, when campsites are available, and even these have tripled in cost the last 5 years or so, at the public facilities. Sidebar: I believe this new increase, at this particular economic point in time, will deter and decrease membership in the CVB next year, as well it should. Another excellent management strategy for the CVB in these times. Pitiful............

[XLFD]

That was my impression too, Aquaman, that gas prices will reduce tourism this year, and raising the rates at local inns will further incentivize those who do come to search for cheaper alternatives, like camping.  When the innkeepers see what's done with their money, they will likely want that extra money back for their own 'marketing plans'.

[Dave]

If they want to do this sort of tax for advertising, they should do so when we're not in a recession. In a lot of ways its kind of dumb planning like the strike we had a few years back at the one local factory. While they may of had a right to strike and all, the timing couldn't of been worse... in the middle of a nasty recession where jobs were not exactly plentiful and money tight... the strike was doomed to fail and if I recall correctly, it pretty much did fail for all practical purposes. There may of been some sort of moral victory for the strikers in there somewhere but I'm not sure what it was.

[AQUAMAN]

Right Dave, but moral victories don't put food on the table, nor keep the unemployment pay coming either, they lost all the way around. And I predict, the same will happen here. Btw, I misspoke upon starting this thread, apparently there was already a 2% tax in effect, they just upped the ante by another 150% to 5% total now, and anyone with any kind of brain for business knows you are in price wars now on almost everything, except the gas pump. Every business owner affected by this increase should by crying from the heavens for relief, and drop their CVB membership asap.

[Willy]

I Saw two signs [see the one below] during a road trip this weekend, one is located next to the west bound freeway on I96 between Grand Rapids and Muskegon just before exit 16 and the other is located just before the Laketon Ave exit next to north bound US31in Muskegon. Both signs are identical. The signs are promoting Ludingtons New Years Eve ball drop. The signs are sponsored by the Ludington Area CVB and I hope the money for the signs is being paid out of the slush fund that the CVB extorts from tourists who visit Ludington and is not being paid for by the taxpayers. Also below is a video dealing with the promotion of the ball drop. Some of the people in the video are folks that have had a lot of influence on X's life.

[XLFD]

Thanks for the annoying video.  All indications have this campaign's financing coming from the CVB room tax, as the pureludington.com site is CVB driven and maintained.  But some of that $120,000+ the Ludington DDA has for discretionary spending may also be filtering in to supplement that funding, as the mayors daughter Brandy is overseeing the marketing aspects of the CVB.