"Without them and the $3.56 billion the tourism and hospitality industry pumps into the local economy, Indianapolis would be just another decaying post-industrial city surrounded by former cornfields of two-story tract homes full of people with nothing to do."
I am not sure what the $3.56 billion consists of, but I do know (according to Stats Indiana (http://www.stats.indiana.edu/profiles/pr18097.html), the total earnings from accommodations, food service, arts, entertainment, recreation and retail trade only made up 9.4% (3.4 billion) of the total earnings in Marion County. And of course, the average wages of these sectors are amongst the lowest. Obviously, only a portion of that is attributable to tourism.
What Ketzenbeger should be doing is providing a real analysis of the minor role that the convention center, etc. actually play in the local economy and contrast that to the percentage of subsidies (tax abatement and tifs, etc. provided to this sector of the economy.
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