The Ketchum City Council did the right—and legal—thing when
it decided to renew the city’s contracts for visitor information and marketing
services with the Sun Valley Ketchum Chamber of Commerce. The contracts are funded by
local sales taxes.
The council did so over the objections of a few residents who said the
contracts violate a provision in Idaho’s Constitution that prohibits government from
directly subsidizing private industries or associations.
Ketchum is not subsidizing anyone. It is doing city business. Ketchum
and the city of Sun Valley both need visitor information and marketing services.
Theoretically, the cities could provide those services themselves.
With their local sales tax revenues, the cities could hire staff to
answer phones, give directions and information to visitors. City staff members could stuff
envelopes with information for visitors, and people and businesses looking to relocate.
They could answer inquiries from journalists. They could organize and
conduct familiarization tours for writers, tour operators and travel agents who come here
to learn about the area. They could convince local hotels and restaurants to donate
reduced-rate lodging and nice meals for the people who will send business to the valley
through recommendations and stories.
The cities could pressure airlines to provide better service to the
area, and figure out what to do when airlines drop service. The mayors themselves could
attend various travel and trade shows to promote Sun Valley and Ketchum as destinations.
Instead, the cities contract with the Chamber of Commerce for these
services.
Of course, the cities could listen to detractors and not do any of
this. They could ignore the fact that tourism is the fuel that feeds their economic
engines.
They could adopt the belief that visitors drop into the valley
uninvited. They could adopt the belief that economic development and jobs are not in the
public interest. They could ignore the fact that a lot of other cities and states have no
problem spending profuse amounts of tax money to entice visitors to come.
The cities could adopt a "let the buyer beware" policy, put a
"Closed" sign on the Visitors Center and let visitors fend for themselves. They
could shut down the free bus system funded by the sales tax. They could throw the entire
responsibility for economic development on private local businesses—the ones that
collect the cities’ sales tax.
The cities could devote all sales tax money to property tax relief for
homeowners and commercial landlords.
Then, they could devote themselves to raising property taxes as sales
tax revenues decline along with the number of visitors. They could sit back and watch the
political backlash as businesses lobby to eradicate the local sales tax.
Finally, the cities could adopt a "back to the future" plan
for thinly stretched budgets to cover only poorly equipped volunteer fire departments, too
few police for 24-hour coverage, and no bus service. To make ends meet, they could sell
off city property like the Forest Service Park to the highest bidder.
Oh, and those falling private property values? Oh, well. Perhaps the
cities could budget a couple of short-haul field trips—one to Mackay and its
beautiful mountains, and one to Fairfield with its ski lift—to figure out how to live
on less—a lot less.
