Shop Mesa program offers cultural discounts

Shop in Mesa and you could soon get a dose of culture for a bargain.

Officials at the Mesa Arts and Culture department hope to boost attendance to events by giving people an incentive to shop in Mesa, allowing them to rack up credits for admission to city cultural venues. The City Council appeared to be in favor of the plans outlined Monday.

Here's how it works:

Anyone who shops in Mesa can earn "Mesa bucks," which are valued at the amount of sales tax on a store receipt, rounded to the nearest $5. These would come in $5, $10 or $20 denominations.

Then, for every admission ticket purchased for an event, "Mesa bucks" can be used to buy another ticket. It's being billed as a "buy one, get one with Mesa bucks" deal.

The city's cultural venues, Mesa Arts Center, Arizona Museum of Natural History, Arizona Museum for Youth and Mesa Contemporary Arts, would all be included in this program.

"These are tough times, and the ability to offer folks out there a new value is great," said Mesa Arts Center executive director Johann Zietsman.

The idea isn't to give everything for free. That's why the first ticket would have to be bought, added Zietsman.

For now, residents would have to get their Mesa bucks from the arts center box office. Zietsman said future plans include teaming up with malls to set up a system so that people can get the Mesa bucks issued at the premises, saving a trip downtown. Control measures for that are still being ironed out.

Zietsman said he believes this is a way to encourage people to shop in Mesa and have a "direct, fun benefit out of their tax dollars."

The incentive would help draw more patrons to shows, which are likely to have some empty seats if tickets are only sold at full price, Zietsman said.

Mesa's current sales-tax rate is 8.05 percent. A minimum $3 sales tax would qualify for the Mesa bucks, up to a maximum of $200 per receipt.

Mayor Scott Smith described the initiative as a way to fulfill the goal of getting more people to experience the city's cultural assets.

"Once they experience their city assets and things that they own, they'll recognize what a great potential it has," Smith said.

The city would issue Mesa bucks from July 1 through June 30, 2010, on a trial basis. It would be retroactive for sales-tax receipts from April 1. Mesa bucks collected until next June would be accepted for use until December 2010.

So people can start shopping now, stash the receipts somewhere safe and get their special bucks in less than two months.

Mesa and non-Mesa residents would be able to participate.

Some shows and events would be excluded from the initiative, but Zietsman anticipated a vast majority would be covered under the program.

"In our view it's a beginning of the concept," said Zietsman, adding that in the future, there's "a real possibility" that this could be branched out further, so Mesa merchants also accept Mesa bucks as a form of discount vouchers.