Sunday, August 10, 2008

OC CVB - More Wasted Money

Kudos to the O-D for today's story about the Oneida County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Although the "bed tax" does not affect residents directly because it is paid by overnight guests in area lodgings, it nevertheless is money siphoned off the local economy by county government . . . money that might be put to more productive use by the area establishments collecting the tax, or by the visitors themselves at other area establishments.
The bureau does little to track travelers and tourism patterns in the Mohawk Valley . . .
but
...it was already planning to begin monitoring its own success rate and that it’s doing the best it can with a limited budget.
Sure, now that it got caught unable to demonstrate any value in return for the ability to skim $$ from lodging transactions! It's amazing how when government fails, it turns the failure into an excuse to ask for more.
The bureau points to its efforts to attract visitors, including attending trade shows...
Sounds like a boondoggle, no?
Mansukh Paghdal, owner of Rome’s Quality Inn, expressed anger at what he said was the bureau’s bias in favor of certain other hotels.
“They are totally no good, because they are only working for certain people,” he said.
Paghdal said he paid $25,000 a year in bed tax and didn’t feel he was getting his money’s worth. . .
Convention and Visitors Bureau President Paul Ziegler said the Quality Inn might be suffering because of a stabbing that happened in March outside the adjoining Denny’s restaurant.

Or maybe it's because Mr. Paghdal's accusation is true, as a comparison of the CVB descriptions of the Quality Inn and the Inn at the Beeches seems to suggest.

Enough of government taking money from business people and using it to benefit only those who are "connected."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Strikeslip has said it the way it truly is. the government of most of the county and Utica most of all, have stolen from its residents thousands in taxes from so many needed programs, just to relabel it to benefit the few involved who seek personal gain.

I have lived here in Utica for more than twenty-five years now. There was a time when anyone walking down any street in Utica, was stopped and asked if they wanted to work.
Now Utica has been politically stripped down to the Ghost-town atmosphere that we all see today.

Remember this Quote?

"Of the people, By the people, And For the people!"

Remember this? Anyone?

I have talked to 100s of local people about my desires for our city, which then got them all to the point of telling me to run for office.

The money being taken out of the city in illegal manors have become an everyday accurence.
The resident of Utica has lost all trust in anyone who now runs for office.
We are being stripped of all factors of the so-called "comfortable way of life" option in our city due to the greed of those who use the powers of office just to profit from personal gain instead of profiting from the power of the vote, which would be the outcome of all who he/they would have worked for while in office.

I want to run for office of Mayor of Utica. For one reason only! I want to tract down all the money that has been taken illegally and put it back into the program tables that were its original destination to begin with.

If you voted me into office, I would show that in my first term, the city of Utica could be sitting in the Black with its tax table just like the city next to us does each year.
Has anyone studied up on the cities around Utica? Why is it that they can stand in the black each year, while we in Utica wind up in the red?
The one reason that I know of is the fact that officials in Utica keep giving themselves a $20,000.00 raise every six months, which by the way, has always been announced just three weeks after there was a Tax-Hike for this reason or that...
I know I can get this city to the point where it can support its residents and their needs, while stopping all the governmental greed and theft.

ArtieC

Greens and Beans said...

Great post! They just keep taking from the economy's utility for their own financial gain.

Anonymous said...

The Visitor's Bureau promotes the Turning Stone above all others and they still aren't paying the bed tax. That's part of the problem.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous,
Yes, that too, you're right. This state, along with many others, which are controlled by the powerful big money companies, which by the way, are the ones who buy off our so-called leaders, are the reason that the governor is about to screw all of us, "disabled, blue collar workers, unemployed, and those on welfare for this new money-crash that is about to happen, instead of God Forbid, taxing anyone who makes over 100,000 dollars. Especially anyone who makes a Million or more!

Have you heard about the 3 million of our tax dollars that they spent to study the DNA of the black bear?
I think we all really need to draw the line at (NOW!), the spending of our taxes on this Mars Garbage... They have all gone absolutely Nuts... This government doesn't give a good G.... D.... about any of the America People anymore, and we need to stop it! Somehow, we need to stop it!

Think about this. We owe Trillions in dept, but they're going to spend on an attempt to put colonies on Mars. I at that point, right then and there, knew that this government has got to be stopped...
I want to be the one to confront them in Washington first with this question!
How many of our immediate needs at home do you a..........s think you could solve then and there with the one-time payment of monies that you'd plan on spending on your first stupid, childish, dumb-founded designs for mars? And, are there any human needs here at home that you stupid jerks care about more than any of your toys and play games?
I better stop here before I lose it.

ArtieC