| Business leaders talk tax increase
The advisory board will have broad authority to make recommendations for how the money should be spent, but it will be the Natchez Convention and Visitor's Bureau that will make the decisions, former Natchez City Attorney Walter Brown said. The half-percent increase would ultimately translate to about $0.05 more to a $10 meal, Adams said. The problem is that much of the population does not want to face any new taxes of any amount, Alderman Bob Pollard said. “They don't care about tourism taxes on hotel rooms, but they don't want anything on them," Pollard said. Media Liaison for the Natchez Convention Center Sally Durkin said it is a matter of who the public perceives the tax increase. “If you polled them as they entered Burger King and asked them if you can tax a nickel on their $10 meal for tourism marketing, they would say ‘no,'" Durkin said.
Humboldt may be new ‘media hub’ of the future
After the split from the Humboldt County Convention and Visitor's Bureau on Jan. 1, Mary Cruse, interim commissioner for the non-profit organization, hopes to create a hub for digital media that will focus more on increasing local economic opportunities rather than tourism. “We've got so much talent here and we want to have a place so people can connect," Cruse said. “We still want to bring productions up here, but we want to have facilities here to create local programming." Cruse said the film commission will be focusing on the area's overflow of artists, graphic designers, dancers, musicians, writers — virtually anyone with interest in digital media — to help expand their opportunities in the film and digital media industry. “There's unlimited stories to be told and you don't need a degree to operate a digital camera," Cruse said.
Podunk politics waning
Barack Obama, D-Ill., looks out over the crowd with Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., during a rally on the campus of American University in Washington, Monday, Jan. 28, 2008. During the rally Obama was endorsed by Sen. Kennedy, and by Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the late president John F. Kennedy. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) .
|
