It wasn’t a consideration or a particular concern. The details hadn’t even crossed my mind until I looked at the full agreement of renting a car in Phoenix. To my surprise, I’d just made a not-so-insignificant donation to the cost of building the stadium that hosts the Arizona Cardinals.
Well, ”donation” is certainly not the right word. Those include a choice of sorts. The line item on the rental agreement was labeled “Stadium Tax.” It added 20-some dollars to my tab — not a huge amount, but considering the number of rental cars I observed coming and going from the rental car center near the Phoenix airport, tourists and business travelers have been subsidizing a profitable private enterprise.
While that is a bit more than a bit of aggravation, that’s not the point.
My wife and I took a Rocky Mountain road trip in 2019, during which we quickly realized we had budgeted too few days in Arizona. Last fall, when my youngest brother and his bride shared they were driving Route 66 and then poking around on the return trip, we arranged to fly out and spend a few days on each rim of the Grand Canyon with them and then a few days in the Sedona area.
After seeing that rental agreement, I began to examine other receipts. While that was the only stadium tax instance, each expenditure, with the exception of gas (which was mostly but not always more than $5 a gallon) included some type of local tax in addition to the state’s 5.6 percent.
At a restaurant, it might be listed as a sales tax of seven or eight percent; it varied in each locale. Merchandise was another matter.
Speaking of which, that was another constant in our stops. No matter what town or store, we were always amazed.
“Look, they have coffee mugs,” my brother sarcastically observed after walking into a store. “Oh, and look, they have T-shirts!”
You will not be surprised to hear that despite their proliferation — both there and those already in our cupboard and closet — we came home with at least a few of those things.
The most egregious — well, that’s not a fair word, let’s say it was “eyebrow-raising” — was buying a unique coffee cup in one of the endless stores along the main drag in the stunningly beautiful city of Sedona. The receipt included the line item: “Sedona tax, 10.4 percent.” Since there was no notation of the state sales tax, I can only assume it was included, leaving the city’s tax at almost 5 percent.
So, what does this all have to do with Bluffton, Indiana? Fair question.
There has been a pretty strong effort around these parts for the past year or more toward developing tourism right here in River City. Those efforts came to a very significant milepost just a few weeks ago with the publication of “Visit Wells County.” Although the News-Banner was involved in the business side of the project, the genesis and driving force came from Audrey Dudley and Chad Kline in the Wells County Economic Development office.
They have assembled a committee of local entrepreneurs and leaders in the core tourism businesses, such as lodging, recreation, restaurants and retail. They helped guide the publication’s content and look. Hopefully, this is only the beginning.
While I certainly cannot compare Bluffton with Sedona, there are, as you will see looking through that guide, a number of local attractions that have drawn, do draw and can draw visitors. Nearby Noble County reports that tourism added $7.2 million to their local economy in 2018.
What Wells County does not have that Sedona, Ariz., and Noble County, Ind., does have is a tourism tax — commonly called an “Innkeeper’s Tax” in Indiana. It is almost exclusively paid by travelers and visitors via an added tax at local motels. Note that we paid an innkeepers tax at the lodgings we chose but in addition, Sedona and the city of Williams have city or county sales taxes as well. I happened to strike up a conversation with a Sedona resident and asked about the cost of living there.
“Ouch, you don’t want to know,” she replied.
But I digress.
In order to continue tourism efforts, it is my understanding that “sustainable funding” is needed in order to form an official Convention and Visitors Bureau and continue these economic development efforts. After paying a number of tourist taxes most recently, it seems a no-brainer to ask our visitors to chip in likewise.
Then, all we’ll need is to make sure local stores have an ample supply of coffee mugs and T-shirts. Welcome to Wells County.
miller@news-banner.com
