Cruise ships must pay their own way

http://www.adn.com/opinion/story/4118894p-4134117c.html
Cruise ships must pay their own way
COMPASS: Points of view from the community

By REP. CARL GATTO

(Published: October 9, 2003)
Last session I sponsored legislation, HB 207, to tax
cruise ship passengers at $100 a head. This tax raises
$71 million to be used as follows: $10-12 million to
Southeast cruise ship ports, $10-15 million to promote
Alaska as a tourist destination, and the remainder to
provide sorely needed help to education. My arguments
in favor of my cruise ship head tax are
straightforward and strictly financial.

• The cruise ship industry pays similar fees to
foreign ports. For instance, local advertisements
indicate that cruise ship passengers pay a tax of $115
to cruise the eastern Caribbean, $99 for the western
Caribbean and $78 for the Mexican Riviera. They pay
nothing for Alaskan destinations.

• Alaska is arguably the most beautiful place on the
planet, and the cruise ship industry for years has
visited the state and made a lot of money doing it.
The cruise ship companies examined their own data and
distributed a report claiming that cruise ship
operations put their profits back into our local
communities. Do they? A check reveals that much of the
money reportedly generated by the influx of cruise
passengers goes right back to the industry. Most of
the money exits our economy in what the cruise
industry calls "leakage."

• Let's follow the money. All or nearly all of the
tours that the ships' passengers pay for are
controlled directly by the ships' owners. In fact,
Alaska tours are advertised on board the ship the
previous day and the money for the tour is paid to the
cruise ship purser before the ship even docks. Those
Alaska businesses not on the cruise ship-approved list
may be listed as "not recommended" and, therefore by
implication "risky." The "approved" tours, those
recommended by cruise ship owners, get charged a
substantial fee (kickback) by the cruise owners. The
ship owners state that their fee is reasonable since
they collect the money for the operators. But the
cruise owners decide which excursions and businesses
get their recommendation. Those not recommended almost
never get a single dollar from any cruise passenger.
That leaves the cruise owners to control even the land
revenue generated by the ship. Any businesses that
complain are dropped like a stone from the recommended
list.

• Next, the cruise ship lobbyists tell me that cruise
owners are experiencing a net loss in profits,
reportedly because of cancellations and decreased trip
fees resulting from the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
Again, is this truth or distortion? To get the facts,
I checked the annual financial reports obtained from
the industry leaders operating in Alaska. The reports
show that while a net loss is true in some cases, the
major owners are reporting a gross increase in
revenues.

• So what happened to the money? It's simple. New boat
orders are eating into their profits. For example,
Royal Caribbean has commissioned five new vessels,
Celebrity has commissioned one, and Princess Cruise
Lines is anxiously awaiting the delivery of its
Diamond Princess, expected to create an 18 percent
increase in gross revenues. Furthermore, all of these
industry leaders report plans to increase passenger
space to Alaska, stating that there is an increased
passenger demand for this destination compared with
foreign destinations. It appears that any dollars
reportedly lost by the industry are likely the result
of paying for new ships, and their investment will
undoubtedly be recovered by future operations.

• We should note that Alaska tourism organizations
annually ask for increased state dollars for tourism
marketing. But the cruise ship industry pays no
corporate state income tax. Industries like oil,
fishing, timber and mining pay an income tax. Phillips
Cruises, operating out of Whittier, pays the tax, but
the cruise ships, using the same waters, do not.

• Finally, I interviewed cruise passengers on the
streets of Juneau, in the Capitol Building, and on
Alaska Airlines flights when passengers returned home.
Not a single passenger said a tax would have stopped
them from traveling to Alaska.

It's time for cruise ships to pay their own way.

Rep. Carl Gatto, R-Palmer, was elected to the state
House in 2002.

wrote

By REP. CARL GATTO

(Published: October 9, 2003)
Last session I sponsored legislation, HB 207, to tax
cruise ship passengers at $100 a head. This tax raises
$71 million to be used as follows: $10-12 million to
Southeast cruise ship ports, $10-15 million to promote
Alaska as a tourist destination, and the remainder to
provide sorely needed help to education. My arguments
in favor of my cruise ship head tax are
straightforward and strictly financial.

TRANSLATION: If I try to raise taxes to pay for education and promotion the
locals will scream like banshees and more importantly, I won't get
re-elected. It is much easier to put a tax on the tourists... after all,
they don't vote here. We can blow some smoke and blame it all on the cruise
industry but in the end, 85% of the money we make off the flat-landers will
pay for stuff that we should be paying for on our own.

BTW - this "tax the tourist" is nothing new. Rent a car in Florida
(especially at an airport location) and watch the fees mount. I rented a
car for $22 and the taxes/fees were an additional $8.52 or approximately
39%. In New York, taxes on a hotel room amount to 13.25% plus an additional
$2.... plus the 8.25% sales tax. San Antonio has a 16.75% hotel tax... plus
sales tax. Oh... you can vote the politicians out of office in the next
election... but wait! You don't live there!

Politicians LOVE to tax people who can't vote for them.


--
George in PA http://www.countryside-travel.com

Norwegian Dawn http://www.cruisemaster.com/dawn.htm
Sleazy 3 - Carnival Conquest http://www.cruisemaster.com/sleazy3.htm
The Mother of All Group Cruises http://www.motherofallgroupcruises.com

On Fri, 10 Oct 2003 08:32:56 -0400, "George Leppla"
wrote:

TRANSLATION: If I try to raise taxes to pay for education and promotion the
locals will scream like banshees and more importantly, I won't get
re-elected. It is much easier to put a tax on the tourists... after all,
they don't vote here.

TRANSLATION: If there is a tax on sandwiches, Leppla would go broke.

"George Leppla" wrote in message
...
Oh... you can vote the politicians out of office in the next
election... but wait! You don't live there!

Politicians LOVE to tax people who can't vote for them.





No, who can't vote AGAINST them!! Citizens like it, too - I haven't paid
state income tax in over 20 years, since moving to Florida. Thanks!!! g

Chris

"fishman" wrote

No, who can't vote AGAINST them!! Citizens like it, too - I haven't paid
state income tax in over 20 years, since moving to Florida. Thanks!!!
g

LOL... of course, you are right. The number one priority of any politician
is not to serve the public, but to get re-elected.

With all the trips I have taken to Florida, I am glad to have helped ease
your tax burden. Someday I will move south and join you in partaking of the
largesse of the transient population! vbg


--
George in PA http://www.countryside-travel.com

Norwegian Dawn http://www.cruisemaster.com/dawn.htm
Sleazy 3 - Carnival Conquest http://www.cruisemaster.com/sleazy3.htm
The Mother of All Group Cruises http://www.motherofallgroupcruises.com

On Fri, 10 Oct 2003 15:17:39 -0400, "George Leppla"
wrote:

LOL... of course, you are right. The number one priority of any politician
is not to serve the public, but to get re-elected.

Blanket statements like this are crap.

BTW - this "tax the tourist" is nothing new. Rent a car in Florida
(especially at an airport location) and watch the fees mount. I rented a
car for $22 and the taxes/fees were an additional $8.52 or approximately
39%.

George, I am not a sock-it-to-the-tourist type, and I live on the non-tourist
side of Orlando, but surely you recognize the impact of rental cars on Central
Florida's highways.

We(Orange County) just voted down a 1/2 cent sales tax increase. Maybe, some
day, maybe, we will finally understand that widening highways only encourages
additional traffic and work to put in light rail from the Airport to the
attractions.
area.

Mike

"Mike" wrote

George, I am not a sock-it-to-the-tourist type, and I live on the
non-tourist
side of Orlando, but surely you recognize the impact of rental cars on
Central
Florida's highways.

Absolutely and if the tax levied on rental cars actually goes toward roads
or the development of mass transit, then I am all for it.

But the "tourist taxes" seldom have anything to do with the industry that
they are taxing. In the case of the original post, $71 million dollars
would be raised by this tax but only $10 to $12 million would go to the
cruise ports. The rest would go elsewhere.... into places that should be
funded by local taxation. Wasn't there a proposed tax on cruise passengers
or ships in Florida last year that would have funded a new sports stadium?
That is the kind of thing that I am talking about.


--
George in PA http://www.countryside-travel.com

Norwegian Dawn http://www.cruisemaster.com/dawn.htm
Sleazy 3 - Carnival Conquest http://www.cruisemaster.com/sleazy3.htm
The Mother of All Group Cruises http://www.motherofallgroupcruises.com

Wasn't there a proposed tax on cruise passengers
or ships in Florida last year that would have funded a new sports stadium?
That is the kind of thing that I am talking about.

Can't speak for South Florida, which does not have a lot in common with Central
Florida. Much of our local hotel taxes have gone to expand the Orange County
Convention Center--a good example of a tax with a correct and logical
application.

Mike

BTW - this "tax the tourist" is nothing new. Rent a car in Florida
(especially at an airport location) and watch the fees mount. I rented a
car for $22 and the taxes/fees were an additional $8.52 or approximately
39%. In New York, taxes on a hotel room amount to 13.25% plus an additional
$2.... plus the 8.25% sales tax. San Antonio has a 16.75% hotel tax... plus
sales tax. Oh... you can vote the politicians out of office in the next
election... but wait! You don't live there!

Politicians LOVE to tax people who can't vote for them.

In some countries there is a GST (Goods and Services Tax) on everything you
buy.

In Florida and Nevada, when it comes to things tourists spend money on,
particularly rental cars, there is a GST (Gouge and Screw Tax)