Tracy Barone bristles at the television commercials featuring sweeping landscapes and people enjoying nature, culture and history in Michigan, New Jersey and Arkansas.
Pennsylvania hasn't been marketing itself as a tourism destination, Barone, executive director of the Lackawanna County Convention Visitors Bureau, said. Proposed cuts in state tourism funding unveiled in Gov. Tom Corbett's budget, will hurt all regions of the state, she said.
The budget cuts tourism marketing in half, by 48.8 percent compared to last year, to $3.8 million.
A spokesman for the governor's office characterized the amount as a $1.2 million increase over what the governor proposed last year. Department of Community and Economic Development spokesman Steve Kratz said the Legislature added individual projects to the line item which were not recurring. That exaggerated the decline, he said.
Shell of 'Friend' days
Nevertheless, tourism funding is still a shell of what it had been in the "You've Got A Friend" days.
When Barone started her post in 2003, state tourism funding was more than $18 million, portions of which were shared with dozens of agencies around the state to help subsidize their efforts. Her department received about $200,000 annually. Direct state funding was long since zeroed out as funds were directed to state promotional efforts.
Barone wasn't totally let down by that. She took solace knowing that promoting the Keystone State benefits everybody. Now, even that funding is eroding. Pennsylvania, once the fourth most-visited state, isn't marketing itself and is not attracting as many visitors, she said. While Lackawanna County doesn't have the Liberty Bell or Hershey Park, tourism has an estimated economic impact of $500 million in the county, she said.
"What a shame that the state thinks so little of its second-largest industry," Carl Wilgus, executive director of the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau, said. "This makes it clear to groups like us that we are on our own, because the state is not behind us."
'Pittance'
Wilgus characterized the proposed $3.8 million tourism marketing budget, down from the current year's $7.4 million as a "pittance," compared to other states. New Jersey spends seven times that amount - $25 million - to promote tourism, while New York spends $60 million.
Tourism funding comes from within the proposed DCED's $451.8 million budget, which is an overall budget increase of 1.9 percent.
Any increase is a plus, said Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce president Robert Durkin.
"The amount is way down from where it once was," he said. "We will be working with our legislators."
Line-item gains
The DCED budget includes substantial gains in line items for local government support and economic development marketing. The Pennsylvania First program, which offers grants and loans to businesses that locate in the state, would receive $42.5 million, a 12 percent increase. The Commonwealth Financing Authority, would receive 5.7 percent more, or $82.5 million.
The former acting DCED secretary, Austin Burke, said he was disappointed that the department's budget is flat and would have liked to see more funding restored after deep cuts over the last several years. However, he was comforted by the fact that some important activities of the agency were preserved. Burke sits on the Commonwealth Financing Authority.