Is Wisconsin doubling down on efforts to draw guests? One Wisconsin lawmaker says funding for the state’s tourism division is up practically 100%.
“The latest State Price range elevated funding for the Division of Tourism by 98 %,” state Sen. Rob Cowles, R-Inexperienced Bay, mentioned July 12, 2024, throughout the Weekly GOP radio deal with posted on WisPolitics.com, as he hailed the significance of attracting vacationers to the Badger State.
Cowles’ deal with was made just some days earlier than the Republican Nationwide Conference, held July 15-18, 2024, at Fiserv Discussion board in Milwaukee. Cowles referenced the RNC together with the upcoming NFL Draft, set for April 24–26, 2025, in Inexperienced Bay as essential milestones for Wisconsin’s tourism business.
In his radio deal with, Cowles identified that vacationers deliver their wallets with them, and the cash they spend patronizing native companies and eating places makes a distinction in native communities and statewide.
We had been intrigued by Cowles’ declare that funding had practically doubled.
Is he proper?
Price range abstract
When requested for backup, the senator’s employees pointed to information from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, a state authorities company that gives fiscal and program data and analyses.
A abstract ready by the bureau on the state Division of Tourism’s 2023-25 funds reveals a desk that places the 2023-25 change at 97.8%.
“For simplicity within the radio deal with you’re referencing, I rounded as much as 98% to keep away from the necessity to verbalize decimals within the radio deal with,” Cowles mentioned in an e mail to PolitiFact Wisconsin.
Cowles, within the e mail to PolitiFact Wisconsin, defined that tourism spending ensures that extra folks study Wisconsin, and “When guests come to Wisconsin, we construct a stronger tourism business, which drives a stronger financial system.”
The senator additionally touted tourism as a “nice return on funding.
“Guests will spend their cash right here, leaving funds with small companies all through the state and producing further revenues for native governments and the state authorities,” he instructed PolitiFact in an e mail.
Here’s a breakdown of the fiscal bureau’s calculations:
Tourism funding for fiscal yr 2022-23 is $18,287,700. However the bureau makes use of a two-year funds system so the bottom yr is doubled to $36,575,400 for the funds.
Whole funding for fiscal yr 2023-25 is $72,343,900. Subtract $36,575,400 from that and also you get $35,768,500 for one yr and that equals a rise of 97.8%
State’s position
In a June 11, 2024 information launch, Journey Wisconsin introduced the 2023-25 biennial funds signed by Gov. Tony Evers invested roughly $35 million over the two-year interval to boost Wisconsin’s profile throughout the nation as a premier enterprise, cultural, and leisure vacation spot.
“That is the biggest enhance in advertising and marketing and promoting funds for the Wisconsin Division of Tourism in state historical past, and with this funding, the division will have the ability to run a aggressive advertising and marketing marketing campaign and maintain tempo with neighboring states,” Journey Wisconsin mentioned within the information launch.
In the meantime, Evers’ workplace famous that when the governor launched his 2023-25 funds, it proposed making greater than $117 million in further investments to bolster the state’s tourism business, together with efforts to broaden current packages such because the Tourism Capital Funding Grant Program, enhance help for advertising and marketing and promoting initiatives, appeal to and recruit large-scale occasions and conventions to Wisconsin, and supply for the native arts with revolutionary packages and funds.
“In whole, the ultimate funds included lower than half than what Gov. Evers initially requested to help the tourism business in Wisconsin,” Evers’ communications director Britt Cudaback mentioned in an e mail to PolitiFact Wisconsin.
Our ruling
Cowles mentioned: “The latest State Price range elevated funding for the Division of Tourism by 98 %.”
The state’s nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau confirmed the practically 98% determine, so the mathematics is appropriate.
The governor’s workplace did object to Cowles’ radio deal with statements, saying that a number of the funding requested within the governor’s funds aimed toward tourism was eliminated or in the reduction of by Republican legislators. Be that as it could, the practically 98% determine touted by Cowles in his radio deal with is correct on the cash.
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