Kudos are in order to Mayor Curt Pringle and the entire city council of Anaheim for making a modest investment in promoting their destination city. While the theme of their float, as described in today’s Register, is promotion of the 2010 major league baseball All Star game, in which Anaheim is the host city, I would get on their case if they didn’t enter a float this year. Budgeting $150,000 for this float is a no brainer.
Do Juice readers have any idea how much money Anaheim collects every year just from their hotel taxes alone? Their TOT tax for 2008/09 was $80.8 million dollars. Anaheim has 20,000 hotel and motel rooms to fill. Compare that revenue to Mission Viejo where we are projecting $500,000 TOT this year.Register reporter Eric Carpenter is quoted to say that “Mission Viejo spent $300,000 in city funds to celebrate its 20th anniversary, but decided not to return this year.”
You bet they decided not to return after we exposed the self serving abuse of taxpayer funds when we are built out and are not a destination city.
After our council getting hammered in Juice posts and public comments at council meetings our City Manager, who is an active member of the Tournament of Roses Parade association, left it to the council to decide if we would apply to the association with another entry this year. That was a somber evening.
If Eric had read our August 2008 Juice accounts, or contacted me, I would gladly have shared my investigative research on the incidental expenditures which drove the final cost of the Mission Viejo float to $400,000.
Another nugget in Eric’s report is that “Huntington Beach’s float cost $200,000, although private funds covered the tab.” Huntington Beach is twice the size of Mission Viejo yet spent roughly half as much to promote their beach front city without any taxpayer funds.
Again. Congratulations to Mayor Pringle and the entire Anaheim city council.
email response:
“Kudos to the City of Anaheim…….The Angels and Disneyland are two giantic sources of REVENUE for the City….Promoting the 2010 all star game will bring in another stream of dough ray me….great investment which will be returned in spades.”