Supervisors should value tourism
Imagine our surprise when we learned that the state was taking down our blue Skyline Vineyard
informational sign. The sign that we pay dearly to have posted on U.S. Route 211 in a contract with the state. We were under the impression that, after two years of harping on those responsible for the signage, we were finally getting the correct sign with the grape cluster pictograph rather than the bed pictograph. Wrong! Through an inquiry to the sign company, this was their reply: "At request of the county, we were required to remove the existing signs displaying the lodging pictograph while the installations of the replacement signs displaying the grape cluster are pending."
At the request of the county? Yet another assault on the tourism industry? All for a bed pictograph rather than a grape cluster pictograph.
Tourism, you know, where folks from the Washington, D.C. region come out here and spend some time and some money. Then, they go home. All the while, we collect a sales tax, part of which comes back to the county. That tourism spending pattern can be a significant element of the county's economic base. But, we as tourism vendors, have to deal with this kind of lack of county support, if not outright hostility.
As our elected representative, I would have thought that Keir Whitson would have called to see what we were doing to get the pictograph changed. You know, "Carl, how can I help with the sign issue?" Instead, the board, in a capricious and arbitrary manner, sends a letter to the sign company demanding that a part of our tourism marketing program be taken down. Our tax dollars at work?
With this kind of behavior by the Board of Supervisors, it is obvious to me that the board would rather see property taxes rise rather than aggressively promote tourism in the county, thus reducing the property tax burden on all of our residents. How else can I explain the action of the board? When you head off to the polls in November, think about that notion, increase the tourism tax base, or raise all of the residents' property taxes.
Carl Henrickson
Washington