Duh
February 17, 2011 | 07:02 AM

MVB got three million dollars in last year's budget. Now Mike White wants to give more money to them from that same budget, not from a new budget mind you, last Council and the last Mayor's budget. Where is this money coming from? Do we have money just laying around to give to the MVB.
Secondly, if the hotels want to pay for their advertising, then do it without taxpayer money. We shouldn't have to prop up their business.
Thirdly, the money that they are going to spend goes to ads in some other market. That money leaves the island and goes to another country, or state or county. Do you think that we should invest in other place's economies by pumping money into their coffers?
The visitors bureau doesn't bring in more tourists, it advertises to potential tourists. But they don't come here for that, they come to Maui because Maui is beautiful (side note, it won't always be beautiful when the rubber-stamping of development by White, Couch, Hokama, etc... begins)
The MVB should be defunded completely.
To conclude, you say you won't comment (but you do). You say that our economy is a tourist economy. I don't disagree, but a tourist economy is an economy based on outside influences and isn't affected by the MVB. A tourist economy is dangerous. We need to diversify our economy. Have you seen what's going on in the MIddle East? Do you think that won't affect gas prices and tourism? What are we going to do after the next 9/11? Give more money to writers who work for tourist magazines to print nice things about Maui? That's, according to the MVB's own testimony, is what the MVB does -payola to tourist writers. I'm glad your blood is boiling. Because when I sit in traffic in Paia for an hour because we don't invest in our own infrastructure, my blood begins to boil. You want more tourists here? Then make it possible for our residents to make a decent living. Make it possible for us to drive home and not waste $10 in gas. You claim the money that Mike White wants to put back into his MVB is so insignificant, then why are you claiming it's so important at the same time? It's obvious that Mike White wants to pay back his corporate backers. No one runs a $100,000 campaign without having some serious ethical issues.

Cassandra