With the first budget surplus in years, Gov. Jan Brewer said Friday she wants lawmakers to restore funding to promote tourism.
The governor said the Arizona Office of Tourism has had to limp along for years solely with proceeds earmarked from the state's share of tribal gaming profits and taxes on car rentals and hotel rooms. The result, Brewer said, is the state is not doing all it can to get visitors - and their dollars - from other states and countries.
She proposes to set aside $7 million specifically for marketing.
"It will enable the agency to explore new programs, such as expanding the Office of Tourism targeted city advertising campaign into a national campaign," she said. "It will lead Arizona's tourism industry into emerging visitor markets such as China, South Korea and Brazil."
But Brewer said some of the cash will be available for "cooperative advertising programs" with rural communities to encourage those who make it to the Phoenix and Tucson areas to venture out further.
The governor said she sees the funding as an investment that will pay dividends.
"This strategic initiative will create and sustain jobs, build revenue and open new doors for economic development," she said. "In essence, tourism continues to mean business, now and for the future."
State Tourism Director Sherry Henry said those international tourists are particularly important to attract, saying they spend an average of $4,000 a person when they visit.
The push comes as Arizona is once again in the national news over immigration issues.
Attorneys for the state will be before the U.S. Supreme Court this spring defending provisions of SB 1070, which requires police to check the immigration status of those they have stopped when there is "reasonable suspicion" they are in the country illegally. And the U.S. Department of Justice just this week announced it had evidence of racial profiling by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department.
Brewer brushed aside questions of how that kind of publicity will work against efforts to promote tourism.
"I don't think SB 1070 had a tremendous impact on our economy," the governor said.
"I think that, in fact, it might have encouraged people," Brewer continued. "And we know that people did make Arizona a destination because they wanted to stand tall and support Arizona in our quest to get our borders secure."
But there is evidence that groups which plan conventions, often years ago, cancelled plans or simply are refusing to even consider Arizona for future events.
Henry said there always will be distracting issues.
"Whatever challenges may be out there, whether they're political, whether they're weather, whether it's the economy, we're about promoting tourism," she said. "That's where we should keep our focus. We will continue to tell our same message, that Arizona is still the same and always will be wonderful, premier tourism destination, whether that's for business, whether it's for pleasure, whether it's to visit family and friends."
Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said the proposal is likely to get approved.
An improving economy and a commensurate increase in sales taxes is anticipated by the governor's office to generate a nearly $760 million surplus, even after the state accounts for increases in the number of children in school, more people enrolled in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System and more people behind bars.
But while Kavanagh is willing to support that tourism funding, he will not be entertaining most other requests.
He pointed out that the temporary one-cent hike in state sales taxes, approved last year by voters, will expire at the end of May 2013. That will cut about $1 billion a year in income.
Kavanagh wants what he calls a "hurricane fund."
He said that would be made up of the anticipated $500 million the state will have left over this fiscal year, coupled with the lion's share of next year's anticipated surplus.
"So instead of having a fiscal cliff, we'll just have a little curb that we can easily manage," Kavanagh said.
samkat posted at 6:28 pm on Fri, Dec 16, 2011.
Why not ask the chamber of commerce to foot the bill since it benefits the most?
BBradbury posted at 8:41 pm on Fri, Dec 16, 2011.
This is a ridiculous comment. When we invest in tourism, we are investing in the importation of dollars into our state, thereby benefiting everyone, including samkat. Being against tourism spending, is like being against life! We need more visitors to our state.
ezsun posted at 12:38 am on Sat, Dec 17, 2011.
Any surplus should be used for education, plenty of attraction was paid to
az by sb1070. Maybe if she would back off from her rascist stand, we would be
in better with tourist business, and her boycotting of meeting with other border
states did'nt help, and who does she think she's fooling. Ha, we just had
millions $$$$ flooded in from people with her same rascist attitude.yea,sure
ezsun posted at 12:48 am on Sat, Dec 17, 2011.
The money spend on Her defending SB1070 (and how many millions ) in
court could have been spent in promoting Az. If a surplus is from the sales
tax increase, the voters did not intended to be spent any way she please,
do I need to remind anyone of what can happen when voters have had
enough of this B.S. (does russel pearse, ring a bell)
wdgnas posted at 6:59 am on Sat, Dec 17, 2011.
why not use it for creating jobs? you create a job, you get a tax break...
dustbowl11 posted at 7:24 am on Sat, Dec 17, 2011.
Is this a wise use of taxpayer funds while single, sometimes seriously ill, poor people are being dropped from state health care coverage and the long term unemployed are dropped from extended benefits?
flagone posted at 4:29 pm on Sat, Dec 17, 2011.
We have thousands of people in this state who now lack healthcare, some of whom will sicken and/or die without the assistance that Brewer and the legislature have pulled away from them. And now we hear there's a surplus and they're going to spend it on tourist ads? Can these people get any more callous toward the residents of Arizona? This kind of prioritizing is nothing but vile.
davidflucier posted at 12:04 pm on Sun, Dec 18, 2011.
Undoubtedly, one of the worst alternatives available. But, more to the point, what surplus? The surplus after the hundreds of millions in deferred maintenance on all our classrooms are completed or the billion in debt has been paid or the healthcare for the poor has been reinstated? What surplus are we talking about?
Arizona Willie posted at 1:01 pm on Sun, Dec 18, 2011.
You need to understand that Arizona Republicans are ALL about business and PROFIT.
Spending millions on tourism is spending money on and for BUSINESS.
S*C*R*E*W the little people. If you aren't a millionaire or don't own a business the Republicans don't care about you at all -- except they want you to vote for them. So they will tell you what you want to hear ( usually ) and then do what helps their rich patrons.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 4:49 pm on Sun, Dec 18, 2011.
LOL...boy it looks like lots of people took their ,,, Obama-Socialism Pill....today.
$7 Million dollars won't do squat for the "give me...give me....give me" ..WHY-SHUD-I-WORK ..to pay for my "own" surgery....Welfare-addicts. Did you notice that 99.99999% of the...Occupy Wall Streeters had.......CELL PHONES WITH CAMERAS ! ! ! ! !
Governor Brewer is doing the "right" thing with the little extra funds that she has....telling the World about what a great place Arizona is to visit (and spend money in). Tourist dollars mean jobs...jobs..jobs...for the Arizona citizens who..."WANT TO WORK".
If you want "free health care on demand"...then buy a one way ticket and get on a Grey-dog Bus and say hello to Los Angeles or better yet......San Francisco.
ezsun posted at 8:41 pm on Sun, Dec 18, 2011.
She would do better in betting that money in the az. casinos. She is stating
through sherr terry that a tourist would spent 4,000 dollars (in her dreams)
It would only take 1,750 rich Koreans ( she claimed, would be the ones targeted)
Maybe she should of promoted Arz when she was out of state promoting her
stupid book at our cost I can bet. It would have sreved az better if she should
have stayed here and tried to deal with our problems (like sheriff joke DOJ
investgations and the bad PR from that) Who'll come here after that! Let's
face it, she doen't have the people of AZ in her priorities. After even dening
for transplants. She has her retirement in mind, she should because she'll
never get re-elected, her and old joe.
retired03 posted at 8:47 am on Mon, Dec 19, 2011.
sadly, there are some in here that focus soley on those that cheat the welfare system. Meanwhile, the elderly, the disabled all of whom cannot work had their healthcare jerked out from under them. Yea, there are some who cheat the system but you cannot remove this from people who need it and deserve it. Enforce the existing laws concerning welfare and medicaide fraud. As far as tourism, it is a gamble, especially the uncertainty concerning SB 1070 and in any event, the result of such an effort is long term, not immdiate. Those of you that are so callous about those that really need assistance, I wonder how you would feel if your disabled son, daughter, or grandmother were affected by these cuts? I know the reply I am going to get, and don't really care but the noise is going to be to privatize all of this help. Hogwash, there are not enough dollars in the private sector for this.
chuckles3 posted at 1:32 pm on Wed, Dec 21, 2011.
There is no surplus. State and Government accounting is a joke.