If it was so effective, businesses would be pouring their OWN money into it.-----Keep Pure Michigan Spending at $0 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

Keep Pure Michigan Spending at $0 – Michigan Capitol Confidential

• The program is ineffective and a waste of taxpayer dollars

...The appropriation should stay at zero. 

...Given that it is demonstrably ineffective, it deserves, perhaps more than any state-run program, to be zeroed out.
...Skeptical of state assertions, the Mackinac Center did its own study. 

Its scholars collected 39 years of publicly available data from 48 states and created a statistical model designed to isolate the effects of state tourism promotion on the economy. 

We found some, but overall, it was a huge net negative.
For every $1 million increase in state tourism promotion spending, there was a corresponding increase in economic activity of just $20,000 in the accommodations (hotels, motels, etc.) industry. No, that’s not a typo. 

In other words, for every $98 in program spending, everyone in this sector shared an increase of just two dollars — and other sectors of the tourism industry did worse. 

There was no impact at all in the recreation and amusement sector and only a tiny one on incomes for the arts and entertainment sector. Studies done by others also question the efficacy of state-funded tourism programs.
It’s bad enough that the program wastes money. 

Even worse, Pure Michigan is fundamentally unfair. 

It takes money from lots of people and industries and gives it to the state government in the hope it will directly benefit a few..."

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