Page 13 - Sonoma County Gazette June 2017

BUDGET cont’d from page 1
how many people it takes to serve one tourist in the same way there are statistics on how many gallons of water it takes to feed the animal that provides a steak on your dinner plate. Five people for every tourist? Let’s see: cook, wait staff, dishwasher, hotel housekeeper, front desk, security, sales clerk, street sweeper, gardener, police officer...maybe 10? 15? 20?
The Importance of Tourism Dollars
The Sonoma County Tourism Board can give us information on where they spend their money locally to support our community, and it’s substantial. Not every dollar they spend goes out of the county to bring people here from elsewhere. And yes, it’s necessary to bring people here because we compete with MANY other tourist destinations. Marketing and advertising is essential for any business. We all have competition and the only way to get someone’s attention is to be standing in front of them waving your hands...look in my direction! Spend your money with me!
Law enforcement becomes a tool for social ills as well as for traffic violators and thieves. When the sheriff says they have cut back on their narcotics unit and feet on the pavement keeping an eye on things, we get concerned. When emergency services hold pancake breakfasts to fill voids in their budget, we eat a lot of scrambled eggs with sausages and pancakes to help out. These two services, are a vital part of maintaining home. Now what?
Your part in the Budget Process
As the Board of Supervisors reviews budget items during June, we need to be paying attention to where they place priorities. They need our input as well as our help. We can’t say take from this to pay that. It doesn’t work that way. But we do need to say this is important to maintaining our home and lives....as well as our economy. If you have suggestion you’d like the Board of Supervisors to know – send the letter and emails. Attend budget hearings, be part of the solution. Every one of us will be living with the decisions they make. They could us our help with those decisions.
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article called “Marketing Budgets Vary by Industry.” The average budget for any business is around 11%, but for consumer goods it’s as high as 24%. Where does tourism fit into this chart of averages? The closest category that relates would be 15%. But because Sonoma County is not a business, it’s government, and because the county tourism budget generates income for local businesses, not for itself, tourism is in it’s own category.
Who gets what and why...allocating funds fairly
Every business has to maintain what generates sales and in the case of Sonoma County, that means maintain roads, open spaces that bring people here, law enforcement that keeps society civilized, and infrastructure like water sewer, trash service, you name it. It’s a very complex system to maintain our home. That’s where the Board of Supervisors comes in when they determine how much money they have to spend in a year and where it gets spent.
There’s never enough money, so each time the board grapples with the budget process, they have to cut from every single need. But it can’t be done evenly with each topic getting cut the same percentage. Roads are one of those subjects. Winter came through with ferocious force this year and tore up previously poorly maintained roads. What was bad got worse. It wasn’t something anyone was counting on so suddenly it became somewhat of an emergency.
Sonoma County Board of Supervisors
575 Administration Drive, Rm 100A Santa Rosa, CA 95403
Telephone: 707-565-2241
Fax: 707-565-3778
Susan Gorin Susan.Gorin@sonoma-county.org
David Rabbitt David.Rabbitt@sonoma-county.org
3rd District:
1st District:
4th District:
2nd District:
5th District:
Shirlee Zane shirlee.zane@sonoma-county.org
James Gore James.Gore@sonoma-county.org
Lynda Hopkins Lynda.Hopkins@sonoma-county.org
With tourist season upon us we have to present a positive experience or people won’t come back no matter how good our food, wine or vistas. And this is where what benefits tourists also benefits residents. Lack of affordable housing is putting people on the streets, so we all see tents pitched under bridges, along creeks and rivers, etc. Mental health services are lacking so many of the people who should be taken care of in some way are left to fend for themselves. They are not well, so they don’t do a very good job. Many self-medicate with drugs and alcohol.
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