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Assembly rejects veto of tourism funding

Funding for tourism marketing has become something of a political football in recent years. Just two years ago, the Kenai Peninsula Tourism and Marketing Council was the beneficiary of $300,000 in borough funding. That number was initially zeroed out for the most recent budget.

After assembly elections this fall, there were enough votes to approve $150,000 for a grant that’s been tentatively awarded to KPTMC. But Mayor Charlie Pierce, who has opposed the funding since his time on the assembly, vetoed that measure this week.

“What you’re doing here...and I think that I’ve had some staff that agrees with me, that you’re setting a bad precedence (sic) here. You’re going outside of the normal, customary practices and you’re giving this agency an extra $150,000. You’re giving them $50,000 more than you appropriated in 2020 and you have no justification for it.”

The justification that has been used is that part of borough code that gives the assembly authority to promote economic development, including tourism. Many assembly members share the view that the Kenai Peninsula is competing with other areas of the state for those tourism dollars, and if local government contributions to that effort are a measuring stick, the Peninsula is falling behind. Assembly member Brent Hibbert was the sponsor for the funding that Pierce vetoed.

“All I have to say is we’re competing for tourists from Anchorage, which spends over $7 million a year, Juneau spends over a million, Fairbanks, $2.9 million and the Mat-Su Borough close to $800,000. That’s what we’re competing against.”

The main argument against the funding is that the assembly hasn’t been shown a correlation between that investment and its return in the form of local tourist spending. Part of the agreement with KPTMC is that the funding will not actually be released until a plan has been presented, that includes those return on investment numbers. But assembly member Kenn Carpenter thinks another organization, a Chamber of Commerce or a private firm would be better suited for the work.

“I’m not against KPTMC. And I love tourism. It supports Seward quite a lot. But I think we’re barking up the wrong tree. We need to find another way. Tourism is important. A lot of people spend a lot of money. We’re just throwing it away as far as I can see. They can’t tell us how much the 90 ships that came to Seward last year they were involved in. They can’t tell us how much of the $7.7 million they were involved in. It’s just because their name is tourism.”

In the end, the mayor did not have support for his veto, with Carpenter, Norm Blakely and Jesse Bjorkman the three no votes. Six votes were needed to uphold the veto.

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