Letter: Where does the money go?

Posted on by Letters
Graphic by Lori Deaton

I read an article last month about tourists visiting and money that was generated. I do not remember the timeline, but 13.9 million visitors and nearly $3 billion spent is a huge amount.

Will the tourism bureau keep the money for advertising? A nice idea would be to distribute some of the money to the schoolteachers who pay out of their pockets for needed supplies for their students.

My wife used to help a neighbor buy school supplies every year until she retired. It is a shame that this is happening today in our area. Low teacher salaries are also part of the problem.

I think it would be nice to have a full disclosure of how the $3 billion is spent and who gets it. It just doesn’t sit well with me.

I remember a few years ago when they started the laptop program. In the rural areas around here, there is no internet, and someone came up with the great plan of telling parents to take their children to a nearby library and sit outside and use its Wi-Fi.

And you call them educated people. Western North Carolina should be ashamed for letting this happen to our teachers and our schools. Also glad that the superintendent of the school system spent $90,000 on a PR company to tout the school system. We need a full disclosure of all the money coming in and going out.

— Leonard Nickerson
Swannanoa

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3 thoughts on “Letter: Where does the money go?”

  1. Bright

    Full disclosures are never completely listed in Asheville’s Tourist industry…especially the amounts of these poseur’s salaries. The only true representation of businesses in Asheville are those small Mom and Pop places, or God bless ‘em, the non-profits. Citizens suffer to pay their salaries, or for hiring experts to “examine and report” on the situations in question. The common excuse for delay.

  2. HJG

    Apparently, the money isn’t going where it should. This is easily proven by the fact that longtime residents pay more in taxes but receive far less in return, except traffic, high prices, strangers coming and going at all hours, and much more garbage and noise.

  3. indy499

    I could trim the budget by 10% in half an hour and you wouldn’t know what had been taken out unless I told you.

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