Letter to the Editor: Supervisors Ceresola and Engel-change your votes
We were disappointed to read that Supervisors Ceresola and Engel voted no on the Chambers’ of Commerce request for $50,000 in funding for promoting Plumas County. That decision is misguided.
We agree with Supervisor Hagwood, who correctly pointed out that tourism bumps up our local economy by supporting local businesses. That, in turn, produces more tax revenue, which allows the county to pay for the services it needs to provide its constituents.
As a sales professional once said, nothing happens (in an economy) until somebody sells something. We need to sell Plumas County, and the chambers are the only entities attempting to do that now. And “priming the pump” sooner than later makes sense because we’re on the cusp of the tourist season, and families are deciding now where to spend their tourist dollars.
We get that Supervisor Engel would rather spend that $50,000 on employee salaries, and that’s certainly a laudable goal in our view, but realistically $50,000 wouldn’t go very far if applied in that way. On the other hand, that $50,000 would garner an exponential return if it were instead invested in promoting Plumas County. More tourism equals more tax revenue, more tax revenue equals more money to bump employee salaries.
The best thing our supervisors can do for county employees, never mind the rest of us who’ve chosen to make this rural county our home, is to support groups who are doing everything possible to keep this county vibrant and appealing to outsiders. County employees’ salaries will ultimately benefit from an infusion of tax revenue generated by tourism, but only if tourism actually happens here.
We encourage Supervisors Ceresola and Engel to reconsider their positions on this matter and to change their votes on any upcoming funding requests by the chambers.
Respectfully,
Susan Christensen and Bill Martin
Quincy