Roanoke City leadership cuts off nose
You know the old saying, “Cutting off your nose to spite your face…”.
The Roanoke Times reported today that Roanoke City Manager Darlene Burcham has cut the budget of the Roanoke Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau (RVCVB) by $30,000 because she’s angry that other local governments (Salem, Roanoke County and Franklin County) are not contributing their fare share.
For those who don’t know, the Roanoke Valley Convention & Visitors Bureau (RVCVB) is the marketing arm to increase tourism in the Roanoke Valley.
For the fiscal year 2004-05, Roanoke City saw a gross revenue from their lodging tax (that’s the tax you pay on your hotel room) of 2.5 million. Roanoke City contributed $847,440 during the same time period. That’s a pretty good return on investment, roughly $3 earned for every $1 spent. That doesn’t include the income from sales tax and other money brought into the City of Roanoke from other tourist activities that aren’t as easy to track. (Get all the numbers from The Roanoke Times story.)
So if you follow the stats, Roanoke City stands to lose about $90,000 by cutting their budget to the RVCVB. I understand that the City may be frustrated they’re carrying a bigger burden in this arena, but their revenue is also higher tax-wise than the other participating counties and city.
This seems to me to be another example of the pettiness between our local governments. I say grow up, climb out of the crib and start acting like responsible government officials.
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