Nicaragua vs. Ukiah: Contrasts In Attitudes

Interesting contrast in the way Californians view tourism and, I suppose, immigration, as opposed to the way some other countries view tourism and immigration.

This Sacramento Bee article (username humboldtlib, password blogspot) describes efforts of Nicaragua to attract both tourists and retirees to their country. Nicaragua and some other Central American countries have actually passed laws to encourage visitors and, they hope, new residents. Some of those laws involving some fairly generous tax advantages.

Contrast that attitude to Ukiah's, where they just approved putting a two percent increase in the Transient Occupancy Tax on the ballot for November. Supposedly half of the revenue of this increase will be for "promotion of the City of Ukiah and its tourist industry.".

Now, I only know what I've read in the Ukiah Daily Journal about this, but I don't recall ever reading any specific needs for the tax, just generic ideas for the use of the tax money. In other words, a tax increase simply for the sake of a tax increase. The City Fathers seem proud of the fact they'll raise their tax to the same level of Mendocino County's bed tax.

I love the quote at the end: "It's a cost not borne by our citizens that will enable us to do lots of things we're currently not funding.". I'll bet even a lot the sell- trinkets- to- tourists bunch in Mendocino go along with that.

Funny how our neighbors to the south seem to understand better than Californians that the way to attract people is to make things nice, easy and inexpensive for them. They seem to forget that visitors contribute to the local economy, even without the bed tax.

We'll see in a few years how much prosperity this two percent increase in the Transient Occupancy Tax brings to Ukiah. My guess is we won't notice much, if any, difference at all and within a few years someone will propose increasing it again.