|
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
|
State
Rep. Tom Tangretti |
  
|
House passes bill to retool Pa.'s tourism funding law
HARRISBURG, June 11 – Legislation passed by the state House today would revamp Pennsylvania's 47-year-old tourism promotion law to reflect the reality of today's tourism promotion efforts, said the bill's sponsor, state Rep. Tom Tangretti, D-Westmoreland.
Tangretti, who is chairman of the House Tourism and Recreational Development Committee, said the legislation would provide a greater share of state funding for regional tourism promotion efforts while also ensuring that state grants for local tourism promotion agencies are adequate and fair.
"Tourism promotion has changed in the past 50 years," Tangretti said. "Pennsylvania needs an updated tourism promotion law that reflects those changes, such as the growth of regional tourism and the addition of hotel tax revenues to the local tourism funding stream. This legislation would ensure that Pennsylvania taxpayers are getting more bang for their buck when the state invests their money in tourism promotion efforts, and that all areas of the state are benefiting from Pennsylvania's investment in tourism promotion."
Pennsylvania currently provides two funding streams for tourism promotion, Tangretti said. One program provides state matching grants to 49 local tourism promotion agencies, while the other directs money for regional tourism promotion efforts. While both funding streams are administered by the Department of Community and Economic Development, there is no language in current state law regulating how the regional funds are to be distributed or used. In recent years, DCED has been shifting more funding to regional efforts, resulting in a loss of funding for local tourism promotion agencies.
"While we have to recognize the growing importance of regional tourism marketing efforts, we also have to define how those regional funds should be used, and make sure our local tourism agencies are receiving the funding they need to market effectively," Tangretti said. "We worked closely with tourism industry leaders from across the state to develop legislation that I believe succeeds in addressing both of those needs."
Under the bill (H.B. 2302), the two current funding streams would be merged into one, and by 2010, state tourism funding would be split evenly between regional tourism marketing partnerships and local tourism promotion agencies. Local tourism promotion agencies would receive state grants on a competitive basis and, for the first time, the law would have specific provisions governing the use of regional tourism funding. In addition, the bill would limit funding for any one local tourism promotion agency to not more than 30 percent of the total state funding for local agencies.
The bill was passed on a bipartisan basis, 199-0, and now goes to the Senate for consideration.
###