On Monday, October 7, 2013, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB483, which protects the longstanding practice of businesses assessing themselves to fund tourism promotion and neighborhood improvements from unintended consequences of a state initiative. This bill clarifies that local governments may continue to establish and renew Tourism Marketing Districts (TMD) and other business improvement districts (BID), which were under threat from the passing of Proposition 26. For us, this means that San Diego’s Tourism Marketing District can continue to be renewed for years to come. This is great news for the longevity and health of our tourism economy as it allows our industry to continue to raise funds to promote itself.
The sponsor of AB483, Assemblyman Philip Y. Ting was quoted as saying, “We need to roll out the red carpet to public private partnerships that create jobs and grow our economy. Tourism is a vital part of our economy’s backbone. Nearly a million jobs are at risk if we lose the promotional investments of this industry to the vagaries of a poorly drafted initiative.” To view more from CalTravel’s press release, click here.
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