HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 33

50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2011

INTRODUCED BY

Nate Gentry

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE NEW MEXICO LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL TO DIRECT THE APPROPRIATE LEGISLATIVE INTERIM COMMITTEE TO STUDY THE POTENTIAL FOR A DEDICATED STREAM OF REVENUE TO FUND THE TOURISM DEPARTMENT'S PROMOTIONAL BUDGET.

     WHEREAS, tourism is a six-billion-dollar ($6,000,000,000) industry in New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, tourism generates six hundred seventy-six million dollars ($676,000,000) in state and local tax revenues; and

     WHEREAS, tourism is the largest private-sector employer in the state, with one hundred ten thousand employees; and

     WHEREAS, tourism is the second-largest private-sector industry; and

     WHEREAS, tourism is the only industry that consistently provides a forty-to-one return on taxpayer investment dollars: for every one dollar ($1.00) spent on advertising New Mexico to tourists, forty dollars ($40.00) is spent by tourists in New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico was far behind all but one of the surrounding states in the amount spent on tourism marketing and advertising in fiscal year 2011: New Mexico spent two million two hundred ten thousand dollars ($2,210,000) on tourism marketing and advertising, compared with Utah at six million nine hundred fifty thousand dollars ($6,950,000), Colorado at fourteen million four hundred thousand dollars ($14,400,000), Arizona at two million two hundred thousand dollars ($2,200,000) and Texas at twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000); and

     WHEREAS, tourism is important to the state and should have a promotional budget commensurate with that of surrounding states; and

     WHEREAS, if consolidating the tourism department and the cultural affairs department is being considered, the money-generating business, that is, tourism, should be in charge of the bureaucracy;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the New Mexico legislative council be requested to direct the appropriate legislative interim committee to study the potential for a dedicated stream of revenue to fund the promotional budget of the tourism department; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the co-chairs of the New Mexico legislative council. 

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