We Love New York -- Just Less Than We Used To
By Matt Towery
July 3, 2009
Page 2 of 2
Let's face it: People vote with their wallets, too. What an irony if the travelers' revenge came in the form of a lack of additional money for a major city to pay for that spanking new baseball stadium or that sprawling new convention center. Cities in effect are trying to build new tourist attractions by sticking it to tourists. Justice might be if the tourists stuck it to cities by taking next year's vacation at home, or if businessmen and women held that meeting by teleconference instead of in person.
The numbers are few on whether that's happening yet in significant numbers. But the U.S. recession shows few signs of relenting anytime soon. And the longer Americans have to go without, the more skilled they're likely to get at cutting corners. Common sense -- and economic law -- says that sooner or later, more and more of them are going to pinch pennies by sleeping in their own beds at night. Sooner or later, the silver bullet of bed and other tourist taxes may boomerang and hit tax-and-spend politicians right between the eyes.
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Matt Towery is author of the new book, "Paranoid Nation: The Real Story of the 2009 Fight for the Presidency." He heads the polling and political information firm InsiderAdvantage.
COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA. >> Back -- Page 1 2
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