Why not reduce the taxes on hotels and let the customers and hotel owners decide how they want to spend their money rather than politicians having the hubris in believing they are superior marketers of private products.

Let’s not forget high taxes discourage people from coming to Schaumburg, high hotel taxes discourage visitors from staying in our hotels.

A low tax rate is the best advertisement that a government can provide.

MOst hotels pay a membership fee in addition of what the village/city pays. So when the municipality assesses 6-7% ON TOP of the state’s hotel tax, do you think the hotelier want a SMALL portion of that to go to the marketing of the destination or to fix a pot hole on a neighborhood street?

The purpose of the bureau is to market the DESTINATION. I can promise you no one comes to Schaumburg for the hell of it. They come to Schaumburg because they were lured to the destination for its location, amenities, transportation options, etc. THEN THEY pick a hotel. Hotels KNOW this which is why they assure that a portion of the local hotel tax goes to destination marketing.

However, you seem to know what make a hotel successful and how they market themselves…NOT. If I gave you a butter knife, are you also a surgeon?

If the Bureau is such a good idea we can eliminate the tax and individual hotel owners can opt in through membership. Or if individual hotel owners don’t think the bureau is doing a good job they can keep that money and do advertising on their own. I don’t buy into the myth that only government sponsored enterprises such as the WCNCB can do effective marketing.

A number of cities opted out of WCNCB because they didn’t see a value in it including Hoffman Estates.

I have no problem with a WCNCB that obtains donations voluntarily from organization that are served by it, but they people of Schaumburg and our visitors shouldn’t be forced to pay for it through a hotel tax.

They should raise their money voluntarily through donations, not taxation.

Let’s keep this money in the pockets of the taxpayers. “Never take a dollar from a free citizen through the coercion of taxation without a very legitimate purpose. We have a solemn duty to spend that dollar as carefully as possible, because when we took it we diminished that person’s freedom.”

I have no problem with the WCNCB existing and promoting local businesses. What I object to is the forcing of taxpayers to subsidizing one industry above all others. The WCNCB should only accept voluntary contributions from non-government subsidized entities. Once the WCNCB starts accepting large sums of money from government organizations and commingles it with other contributions it rightfully opens itself up to criticism.

If that were to happen the WCNCB would have to go back to making their money honestly through voluntary contributions or commerce like everyone else.”

Brian…I have not had the chance to meet you however, I find these comments offensive. I would be glad to speak to you about some facts regarding the tourism industry, and commerce. And by the way, how do you know what I do or don’t do through voluntary contributions?

You may claim that you don’t work for the Village of Schaumburg, but you’re submitting to this website from a computer & server owned by the Village of Schaumburg and the taxpayers of Schaumburg.

Your IP address is 69.222.168.98.

http://ws.arin.net/whois/?queryinput=69.222.168.98

It’s disturbing that the Village of Schaumburg would allow someone using their own taxpayer-financed computers & likely a taxpayer-financed employee to post anonymous propaganda on a blog, and then lie about who they are.

Why is the Village of Schaumburg allowing the use of Taxpayer resources to bash taxpayer watchdog groups, promote corporate welfare and taxpayer-funded jaunts to Copenhagen?

All the more reason to cut wasteful government spending such as the taxpayers money that goes to the Woodfield Chicago Northwest Convention Bureau and cut taxes.

If that were to happen the WCNCB would have to go back to making their money honestly through voluntary contributions or commerce like everyone else.

With a statement like “You don’t know anything about the nuances and complexities of THIS industry” it shows you have extreme biases in favor of “THIS” industry.

I do have an economics degree and I am astutely aware of how money flows through an economy. I am also aware that when government redistributes and reallocates the economy through tax and spend policies that there are winners and losers. The Tourism Industry would be one of the ones that would benefit the most, but you seem not to care about what those increased taxes do to other industries and people.

Why do you want to force people to subsidize this one industry? Are other industries and the people’s freedom not important to you?

Perhaps you don’t care about the increased taxation of the people because you are one of the people who will benefit from this redistribution/reallocation of other peoples money. Perhaps you work for the Woodfield Chicago Northwest Convention Bureau, or one of the entities that it encourages tax-financing for, or you work for the government itself.

It’s funny you criticize the Schaumburg Freedom Coalition is Libertarian funded. This web-site is 100% funded by myself, all $7 per month of it for website hosting. As for the word libertarian, it comes from the root word of liberty and we are proudly funded through liberty (voluntary funding) instead of government funded (coercive taxes) alternative.

You can talk all you want about “windfall revenue streams” but lets also talk about the destructive nature of taxes that will be used to pay for the Olympics if they do indeed come to Chicago. The “windfall tax destruction” that happens downstream in the economy when people get taxed to the gills, as we are in Cook County, should not be discounted.

Just checking, was there a referendum for the people of Chicago to vote if they wanted taxpayer funds to be used for the Olympics? Or did Mayor Daley lie about a tax-free Olympics to get us this far in the process only to do a flip-flop after the point of no return?