SB 272: Marketing GRANT for tourism industry

POM:
Please do NOT give any more public money to private business. Instead, make sure money is made available for funding present and future essential government services such as education, roads, public health & safety. All together now let's, "just say NO"! Thank you.
Mike McBride; Kenai

Written Testimony to the Senate Finance Committee, dated; February 6, 2002:
Please do NOT support SB 272. Please do NOT give any more of OUR money to private business. Instead, make sure money is made available for funding present and future essential government services such as education, roads, public health & safety. Some will call this piece of special interest legislation "economic development", or "disaster relief"; while others will more accurately call it "corporate welfare"!

This industry should have assumed full financial responsibility for tourism marketing years ago.  It appears that no effort has been made by the association, or individual members of the association, to provide any extra emergency marketing money to promote their businesses!  Instead they want you to give them our school money!

According to press releases issued by everybody from the Governor on down, we are in a serious budget crisis. If these statements are accurate, doesn't that mean we no longer have excess funds available to support the tourism association or any other special interest group? Life is full of risk, and so is business. We can not expect the public to insure everyone against these
risks. If you approve this legislation, you are telling everyone in the state, "it's business as usual folks, and there really is no budget problem". That will make implementing any new taxes a really hard sell!

Given the Governor's proposed budget, and fiscal notes attached to bills currently pending before the Alaska Legislature, this year's spending could easily exceed $7,500,000,000. If you divide $7,500,000,000 by the number of people who applied for a PFD in 2000 (607,596), it comes out to a whopping $12,344.00 being spent for every man, woman, and child in the state! For a
family of four that equals $49,375.00! We all need to think about that number for a minute, and ask ourselves, are we really getting our money's worth? The majority of Alaskan voters will say, "NO"! The cost of funding SB 272 or HB 359 will only put an unnecessary burden on an already swollen budget.

Please think about the future of All Alaskans; then vote NO on this, and ALL non-essential spending bills that come before you this session. Thank you.
Mike McBride; Kenai

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