• Notes from the desk of…
  Farmington Town Supervisor Ted Fafinski
  
• Watch for my weekly column and news stories in the Victor Hearld for news about Farmington Town Government.

Tourism and what it means to Ontario County and the Taxpayers…

Part of my job as Farmington Town Supervisor and representing you at the Ontario County Board of Supervisors is learning the various factors that affect or drive our local economy.  I recently wrote about the vegetable industry in our county and the prominent role that it plays in the Agricultural picture.

I have done some more research on Tourism and the numbers are staggering in relationship to how much it means to the economic life blood of Ontario County and Finger Lakes Region.  Here are some of those numbers as reported by the Finger Lakes Visitors Connection, our county tourism agency.

• Travel and tourism is a $90,000,000.00 industry in Ontario County.
• Tourism in Ontario County generates $6,000,000.00 in tax revenue for local (County, Cities, Towns and Villages), State and federal governments.  The significant factor is that at the local level if that revenue was not generated then property taxes would rise to match that income.  In other words the tax revenue from tourism is a factor in keeping the property taxes down.  Here is the dollar and cents impact; each Ontario County household would pay $1,001 more in property taxes without the tax revenue generated by the Travel and Tourism industry.
• Speaking of economic impact, according the Finger Lakes Visitors Connection the Tourism industry is one of the county’s largest employers with 5,561 tourism jobs, accounting for over $70,000,000.00 in annual payroll.
• Were you aware, that besides the tax revenue and jobs, travelers in the Finger Lakes Region spend on an average $200,000.000.00 per year in the region?  Wow, that’s about $23,000.00 an hour on average.
• Did you know that all the festivals in Ontario County generate about $45,000,000.00 per year?

I found these numbers simply amazing and thought you would like to know about the significant impact travel and tourism has in our County.  I think it makes it easier to cope with the summer tourism traffic on route 332, knowing that all those cars are helping to keep our property taxes down with all the revenue they generate in our county.