Luring tourists is a tradition

February 25, 2008 04:00 am

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It appears our region will be getting a new "brand name" soon. Many know it as the Central Leatherstocking, Upper Susquehanna, or the Heartland of New York area. That could change, once an ad-hoc group of arts and cultural groups taking on this task completes its mission.

Bottom line, once the decision is reached, just as before, some marketing dollars will be required to attract visitors to this area, or, as Barbara Renton of Bainbridge recently suggested, calling it the "First U.S. Frontier."

Spending money to get people to come to our region is a practice that's been around nearly 100 years old. Cooperstown was the first to spend money to advertise for new tourists. The Freeman's Journal of April 1, 1909, reported that the Cooperstown Board of Trade had recently made an appropriation of $30 for advertising Cooperstown.

"This is the first money ever appropriated "¦ for general advertising purposes," the paper reported, "and the action is hailed by our progressive citizens as a great step in advance. All advertising heretofore has been carried on by private enterprises such as the Otsego Lake Transit Co. and the hotels."

"The publicity committee was also authorized to correspond with some New York newspapers regarding rates for advertising Cooperstown as a summer resort," the Journal reported.

The advertising continued and expanded the area destinations beyond Cooperstown at some point. It got more and more expensive, and rather than having the burden placed on local taxpayers, some new ways of producing revenue to pay for advertising were considered.

Moving ahead to December 1987, a special committee of the Otsego County Tourism Bureau had been researching a lodging tax on county hotels and motels. The funds would be used to promote, advertise, and add a director and secretary for the bureau.

The Daily Star reported in late April 1988 that battle lines were drawn on this 2 percent surcharge, or "bed tax" as it was called. The fight was over a tax that could raise an estimated $200,000 a year in Otsego County. On an individual room costing $50, the tax would amount to $1.

Herta Mistler, of the Deer Run Motel in Springfield, said it was unfair to tax only about a third of the tourists who pass through the area.

Albert O'Brien, of the Cooperstown Motel, said, "We're only taxing those who stay over, not the quarter of a million who pass through the Baseball Hall of Fame."

There was plenty of opposition to the tax, but Otsego County followed 14 other counties in the state to use the bed tax. The Board of Representatives approved the tax after Gov. Mario Cuomo signed a bill into law in July 1989 giving the county the approval to do so.

By 1993, the tax needed to be renewed by the state Legislature. It was reported that the tax was generating roughly $185,000 a year. Local state legislators approved the extension, as well as county lawmakers.

In February 2002, the Board of Representatives wanted to expand the 2 percent bed tax to include players and coaches of the increasingly popular baseball camps. A month later a board committee discussed a proposal to raise the tax from 2 percent to 4 percent.

Taxes never sleep, as most of us know. While the Board of Representatives voted in September 2007 to raise the bed tax to 4 percent, an amendment to impose a bed tax on all Otsego County baseball camps will be heard beginning this June.

This weekend: A sleepy West End Oneonta grew enormously from the early 20th century.

City Historian Mark Simonson's column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com.