State leaders look to triple Connecticut's tourism marketing budget
Mystic — State officials and tourism leaders gathered Thursday at one of Connecticut's top attractions, Mystic Aquarium, to tout a bill that would triple the state's tourism marketing budget.
The state spent $4.5 million on tourism marketing last fiscal year, about half of what was spent by New Hampshire, a state with about half of Connecticut's population. The bill aims to raise the marketing budget to more than $12 million with the whole package funded by the state's 1% extra tax on food and beverage sales, officials said.
State Comptroller Sean Scanlon said the money is part of a proposed $55 million package to boost the state's tourism and hospitality industry.
State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, said investing in marketing is vital to Connecticut's economic health, as she promoted the bill during the meeting here of the Connecticut Tourism Coalition, Scanlon and other officials.
This is a major investment," Scanlon said after the meeting. "The bill is all about investing in the tourism industry."
Frank Burns, the coalition's executive director, said the 1% tax generates more than $100 million annually. Burns said the bill also aims to invest $5 million in arts and $5 million for culture.
Koray Gurz, the aquarium chief financial officer and chief operating officer, said tourism spending yields $4 for every $1 invested. He pointed out that the aquarium attracts 800,000 visitors annually, more than half of those coming from out of state who spend money here.
Scanlon's press release announcing the event said he would address the economic consequences of President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs, though he did not in his speech to the coalition. He said anything that makes goods and services more expensive is problematic.
"It does have an impact on people's ability to spend money and support industries like tourism," Scanlon said of the tariffs.
Scanlon told the coalition that with a budget surplus, a $4 billion rainy day fund and $10 billion less in pension debt than seven years ago, the state is positioned to invest for the first time in years.
"Connecticut is now at an inflection point," Scanlon said, and the state needs to decide how it wants to navigate its "next chapter."
"Some people don't consider tourism as important as it is," Osten said. "But it's a multibillion-dollar industry in the State of Connecticut."
Osten said the state has "missed the mark" by not investing in tourism. She said the state has put aside little to no money to market how it will celebrate the country's upcoming 250th anniversary. Burns said the proposed bill puts $5 million to funding America 250 marketing.
"We're a great state that has assets that need to be shown to people, and the only way to show them is we need to have marketing dollars, Osten said.
According to the coalition, Connecticut's tourism industry generates $2.6 billion in annual tax revenue and employs 120,000 people while travelers spend $17 billion.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Advocates, legislators still trying to expand expired compensation program for radiation exposure
Jun. 10—One year ago, Congress let a federal program end that compensated people who grew sick from mining uranium for nuclear weapons or from living downwind of nuclear weapons tests. In those 12 months, Tina Cordova's cousin died after years of living with a rare brain cancer. Under a proposed expansion of the program, 61-year-old Danny Cordova likely would have qualified for the $100,000 compensation offered to people with specific cancers who lived in specific areas downwind of aboveground nuclear weapons' tests. "Instead, he and his mom lived literally paycheck to paycheck trying to pay for all of the medications he needed," Cordova said. Since the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) program was created in 1990, New Mexican downwinders have been left out, as have uranium mine workers from after 1971. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., has led an effort in the Upper Chamber alongside Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., to expand the program so it includes later uranium mine workers, and people harmed by aboveground nuclear tests in more states — including New Mexico. In January, they reintroduced a bill to extend and expand RECA. "Letting RECA expire is a disgrace to these families and victims," Luján said. "It's an insult to the victims and their families who still struggle to this very day to get help, get the medicine they need, get the treatments for the conditions caused by the negligence of the federal government. For the victims, this story is long from being over. Generational trauma and poor health conditions continue to plague entire families." Although Hawley and Luján's bill passed the Senate twice in the last session of Congress, and was supported by the entire New Mexico delegation, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., never allowed a vote on the companion House bill, sponsored by Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M. The expansion would have included an increased pricetag of $50 billion to $60 billion over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office — a cost estimate Luján has disagreed with. Since its inception, RECA has paid out approximately $2.6 billion. There is no accurate estimate of how many New Mexicans would be included if RECA is expanded, according to Luján's office. "We know we have the votes to get this passed now," said Leger Fernández, who plans to reintroduce the bill in the House. "They keep raising issues with regards to the cost... These are people's lives, and so we need to keep bringing it back to that issue. And in many ways, I think that we are doing this in a bicameral manner, and that the pressure that is being brought from the Senate will help us in the House." 'No apology' Cordova's cousin was diagnosed in his 20s, and had five brain surgeries to address his cancer. "He was left with horrendous and devastating consequences of that (first) surgery," Cordova said. "He lost the eyesight in one eye, he lost the part of his brain that controlled all of his hormonal functions, and he lost the part of his brain that also controlled his ability to adapt his body temperature." Five generations of Cordova's family tree include many cases of cancer. She herself survived thyroid cancer, and as a co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, she's long advocated for expanding RECA. Cordova's kitchen counter is covered in the stories of family trees that mirror her own. For 18 years, she's been collecting health surveys from people who grew up in areas downwind of aboveground nuclear weapon tests, documenting a history of cancer and death for families from Tularosa, Alamogordo and beyond. Loretta Anderson, a patient advocate and co-founder of the Southwest Uranium Miners Coalition Post-71, works with over 1,000 former uranium miners and their families throughout the Laguna and Acoma pueblos. She knows 10 post-1971 uranium miners, those who would be compensated under a RECA expansion, who have died in the past 12 months. "They died with no compensation, no apology from the government," Anderson said. Despite the difficulty in getting RECA extended and expanded, Cordova has faith it will eventually pass through Congress. "This is not a partisan issue," Cordova said. "Exposure to radiation has affected the young, the old, the male, the female, the Black, the white, the Republican and Democrat alike."
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Pro-sanctuary Dems, activists launch Albany sit-in to push law that would restrict ICE
ALBANY — Activists and socialist Democratic lawmakers held a sit-in on a busy street outside the state Capitol to push for a bill that would expand the state's controversial sanctuary policies. The so-called NY4All Act would stop all police and New York state employees from working with immigration authorities. 'We will remain here until NY4All passes,' one activist with a bullhorn declared. The demonstration blocking Washington Avenue came as unrest over ICE raids roiled Los Angeles, where President Trump took the extraordinary step of deploying the National Guard and Marines. Support for NY4All in the state legislature is on shaky ground at best. Republicans have blasted the bill despite its longshot status. 'While President Trump continues to remove dangerous criminals here illegally, the NY for ALl Act will make our state a safe harbor and magnet for illegal immigration,' Assemblyman Matt Slater (R-Westchester) told The Post in a statement. 'Clearly, Democrats learned nothing from the failed open border policies of the past.' Socialist pols including state Assembly members Emily Gallagher (D-Brooklyn), Marcela Mitaynes (D-Brooklyn) and Claire Valdez (D-Queens) spent about an hour at the sit-in, which was organized by the New York Immigration Coalition. Gallagher referred to the Trump administration as 'fascist' in an X post featuring a video of her sitting in the street as a brass ensemble played in the background, threatening to drown out her words. 'ICE might still overwhelm us, but we need to make sure that we are doing everything that we can to protect our community members,' she said. The bill — beyond restricting local and state law enforcement from working with federal immigration authorities — would prohibit ICE from entering state property without a judicial warrant, stop county jails from boarding out ICE detainees and bar state employees from entering any information about a person's immigration status into a state database. The sit-in led many buses to reroute as it unfolded along an intersection that's a major stop for many bus routes going in and out of Albany. The activists were cleared away by 4:30 p.m. and no arrests were made.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Mikie Sherrill wins Democratic primary in New Jersey governor's race
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) has won the Democratic nomination for governor of New Jersey, coming out on top of a crowded field, according to Decision Desk HQ. Sherrill defeated five other major candidates for the nomination in a hotly contested primary to succeed two-term Gov. Phil Murphy (D), who is term limited. She entered the primary on Tuesday as the favorite given her polling lead that she's maintained in public and internal polls, including those from other candidates' campaigns. She also had the backing of most of the county parties in North Jersey, home to most of the state's population. County endorsements aren't quite as influential as they used to be with the state's 'county line' ballot system no longer in use, but they still carry some weight. The primary was an early test of political power in New Jersey without the county line, which a federal judge struck down last year on the grounds that it gave county-endorsed candidates favorable positioning on the ballot. Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop had railed against the county line and sat out county nominating conventions as he sought to advance a grassroots, outsider campaign. Sherrill will face Republican Jack Ciattarelli, who was also the 2021 GOP nominee, in the general election. Ciattarelli has the endorsement of President Trump. Fulop was hoping to tap into antiestablishment sentiment seen in the state last year with the line going away and Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) managing to hold off New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy in the Democratic primary for Senate, running a similar grassroots campaign. As part of his wider efforts to reshape the state's politics, he backed a range of progressive candidates for state Assembly, including some incumbents and some primary challengers. He laid out extensive policy proposals and slammed Sherrill, accusing her positions of being vague and too moderate. But Fulop ultimately fell short to Sherrill, a fourth-term House member. Despite Sherrill's polling advantage, multiple candidates seemed like they could pull off an upset win. Most of the candidates in the race placed second in at least one poll and had paths to victory in what was expected to be a divided primary electorate. The candidates all brought extensive resumes and agreed on many issues, pushing to lower the cost of living, increase affordable housing and invest in renewable energy and education. But they tried to stand out in various ways to gain the advantage. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka ran as a progressive and received widespread attention for his arrest at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility last month while he was trying to observe conditions there. The charges against him were eventually dropped. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) focused much of his campaign on vows to lower costs and taxes in what is one of the most expensive states to live in the country. New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller touted his support from teachers, having led the large teachers union for a few years. Former New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney, the only candidate from South Jersey, emphasized his longtime experience in state politics and his institutional knowledge to get things done. Sherrill focused on her 'affordability agenda,' calling for incentives for developing new housing, streamlining the approval process for energy projects and expanding tax credits. Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin congratulated Sherrill on her victory, saying the DNC will work 'all hands on deck' to ensure she wins the general election. 'In 2025, Democrats have overwhelmingly won and overperformed in special and off-year elections,' he said. 'We'll continue that trend in New Jersey by organizing in every corner of the state, investing strategically, and working with our allies on the ground to elect more Democrats who will stand up to the Trump disaster and deliver for working families.' She will face a challenge from Ciattarelli as he hopes to build on his narrow loss four years ago. He surprised many by only losing by 3 points to Murphy, and Republicans made significant improvements in the 2024 election in November in the Garden State. But Sherrill will start out as the favorite in the still left-leaning state. A trend that may benefit her is that New Jersey has elected a governor from the opposite party of the president in each election for decades except 2021. If elected, Sherrill would be New Jersey's second female governor. Updated: 10:35 p.m. ET Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
