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MINDING OUR OWN BUSINESS November 1, 2003 by Linda Hirvonen Delta County Economic Development Alliance The Verdict is In Reports of sales and distribution of dollars in retail and tourism are often difficult to come by. The State of Michigan has recently released numbers that show a lot about our community. One report was County Sales Tax data for 2001 and the other was Michigan Tourism Spending by County (2000). This is the latest data available. The call of the Chamber columns has often been “Buy Local.” This time, the EDA is saying “Congratulations and thank you” both the to Chamber for their battle cry and especially to the citizens of Delta County who have heeded the call. An analysis of 2001 sales tax dollars ranks each county in terms of buying income, sales tax revenue, and per person sales tax collections. The per person sales tax revenue is the place to congratulate our local people for supporting our local economy! Delta County, at $732 per person, is #1 in the UP in collections and even exceeds the state average by $56. We rank 12th of the 88 counties in the state. Here’s a chart showing the UP:  >>Download Graph .PDF File Delta County’s 2001 buying income per person is shown at $14,750. This is 34th in the state. They show our tax base as $470,820,000 and place us 33rd at sales tax revenue of $28,249. The tourism spending by county report also contained some surprises. This information shows annual spending by county at motels, camping, seasonal homes, staying with friends, and on daytrips. This report shows that in 2000, the 46,900,000 tourist dollars in Delta County split out this way: 36% from motel stays .03% from campers 25% from seasonal home use 21% from staying with friends and relatives 15% from day-trippers. Not terribly surprising was the fact that Mackinac County, at nearly $180 million, leads the UP in total tourism dollars collected. Following them are: Chippewa at nearly $100 million; Marquette at just over $80 million; Houghton at just over $60 million; and then Delta. Many may be surprised by the fact that the total tourism dollars brought into Delta County that year amounted to about 2/3 of MeadWestvaco’s 2000 payroll NOT including benefits. This is not said to criticize the impact of the 47 million dollars that tourism brought into our community; $47 million is a lot of money! But is still only 1% of our tax base. The EDA and the UP.EDA are often asked why we, meaning locals/regional/state economic developers, don’t spend more effort attracting tourism related business. Perhaps the numbers above will help explain the relative impacts of a dollar spent in attracting or expanding tourism vs base industry. There are many niches for private industry to invest in tourism related opportunities. The Travel Michigan website analysis shows that people who are visiting Delta County’s section are looking for historic inns and sites, things for children to do, museums, outlet malls, flea markets, golf resorts, and skiing and snowboarding. Revenues and taxes generated by tourism vs base industries also say something about the relative impacts of where our development dollars are or ought to be spent. Convention and Visitors’ Bureau’s annual budgets are derived from an additional assessment upon the visitors who stay in motels. To extrapolate from the numbers above, the Delta County CVB’s budget for attraction of tourist dollars for 2001 would have been approximately $115,000. The EDA, whose goal is to retain and expand our industrial and business service base, had expenditures of $61,129 in 2001. The motel owners should be commended for taking the actions available to promote tourism in our community. The Chamber of Commerce and property owners should be commended for getting the CVB off the ground several years ago and then letting it go on as its own entity, just as the Chamber did for the Economic Development Alliance ten years ago. In challenging budgetary times, it is important for those in decision- making positions to recognize the significant impact of the manufacturing and business bases that serve our own people and that really pay the bulk of the taxes in this community. We hope they will look at the taxes collected both from the real estate and personal property taxes from the business and the taxes collected from the employees in considering the appropriate level of funding to keep their own communities not only viable but growing. Learn more about it: Thanks go to Ray Schieber for collecting and preparing the data referenced above. The website for Michigan Tourism Spending is www.prr.mus.edu/miteim/michtsm00.htm. The sales tax data is from the MEDC website http://travelmichigannews.org/pdf/2001. For more about the interests of tourists in Michigan, visit http://travel.michigan.org/linkanalysis/industry. Come Grow with Us in Delta County! Linda A Hirvonen, Executive Director Delta County Economic Development Alliance 230 Ludington Street Escanaba MI 49829 (906) 786-2192 or fax (906) 786-8830 |
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