Tour of Missouri gets support of tourism commission
JEFFERSON CITY — The Tour of Missouri is likely to roll on in September, but a dispute over how state money is spent to support the September bike race is simmering beneath the surface.
Today, the Missouri Tourism Commission voted 7-0 to make cuts elsewhere in its budget rather than to sacrifice the $1.5 million dedicated to the tour. Commission members said the race is too important to economic development in the state, and it’s too close to its start, to cancel it now.
Ultimately, the question over whether to cancel the race belongs with the Tour of Missouri, Inc., a non-profit organization set up by Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder to run the bike race. It’s the non-profit, and not the state, that has contracts to produce the race, and officials from the administration of Gov. Jay Nixon want to know how the money is being spent.
Earlier this week, Nixon budget director Linda Luebbering told tourism director Bob Smith that the state would not approve the $1.5 million payment to Tour of Missouri, Inc. And in a memo to Luebbering, economic development director Linda Martinez recommended that the funding be cut from the budget.
Nixon is facing a budget shortfall because of declining state revenue and he’s asked every state department to propose millions of dollars in cuts.
When the memo was made public, Kinder and others began a full-fledged public relations campaign to convince Nixon to keep the Tour of Missouri money in the budget. Nixon spokesman Jack Cardetti said the decision hasn’t been made yet.
On a conference call today during a tourism commission meeting, one of Martinez; deputies, Katie Steele Danner, told the commission that the governor’s office is seeking more information on the Tour of Missouri contracts before it approves the money.
“I am very interested in getting the information from you to help me make your case,” Danner said. Both she and her husband, Adjutant General Steve Danner of the Missouri National Guard, volunteered on the first race three years ago. “I’m just trying to get my arms around the structure of this,” Danner said.
Kinder and other commission members, including state Sen. Jack Goodman, R-Mt. Vernon, said the race is too important to cancel.
Before you quote numbers that are not correct. Tour of Missouri, Inc commissioned a 3rd party group to do the economic impact study. The same group that conducts these surveys internationally with a speciality in pro cycling. The report is transparent- and no one is “getting rich” on the event. When an entire one week professional event cost what one MLB athlete makes in a month- I think we’re losing our perspective. $3.3 million budget, $30 million economic impact. The avg. spent per spectator is available- see for yourself. 400,000+ visitors. What does the aggregate ticket price of the All-Star game yeild- and who get’s rich off of that? It’s fine if you don’t support the race- I don’t go to Ram’s games- and we subsidize them. We don’t have to bid on this event like NCAA tournaments or All-Star games- our State owns it. This will do more for the State’s PR and Tourism throughout the State than the All-Star Game. I don’t think the host cities on this years route have too many other vehicles that attract tens of thousands of visitors.
For those of you “confused” by the numbers, the 32 mil watched is not the count of how many were there, but how many people watched the live feed and then later watched the Versus coverage of the event on cyclism sundays. Cycling is an international sport, and this race, though young is one of the only of it’s caliber in North America (the other being the Tour of California) The official numbers being released, is that 1.5 mil from Missouri in 2009 (they sign on back in late 06-07, to provide funds for the 2007, 2008, & 2009 races). The projected economic impact is $30 per year, which could triple in size if Armstrong chooses to race. I do not know where the 352 million came from (it sounds like a “.” was misplaced)
As for the political side of this, the race has been for the past 1.5 years been an object of contempt among the Missouri Democratic Party, both Nixon and Page(sam) spoke out against the Tour. When Nixon expressed his support for the Tour he gained back many of the democratic voters whom he had isolated (famous cyclist such as Lance Armstrong, are firm Democrats) Sam Page did not recant of his hatred for the Tour, and lost a good half of those predicted to vote in his favor.
The true atrocity lies in the timing which the Governor chose to reject funding. Less than 60 days in unheard of within the political community, because of the legal ramifications of renegotiating signed contracts with investors. Also, I personally believe that this was not a coincidence on the part of Nixon, for the very people who would have opposed him on a national level, just happen to ALL be in France (for a 96yr old race “le Tour de France”).
There were some comments which seemed to doubt the amount of people to attend the tour. I believe the largest count was 800,000 people for one stage (one day’s worth of racing) , many of them coming from out of state (had several conversations with families using the trip as a vacation, last year)I would assume the number of attenders is closer to that figure.
And if any of you are still questioning the validity of the arguments, replace “cycling” with “baseball”, “Tour of Missouri” with “All Star Game”, “Armstrong” with “Pujols”, and “international” with “national”
Now how do you feel?
just because you do not understand the importance does not diminish the reality of it
I agree the timing is an issue-but understand the new fiscal year starts July 1 and the Tourism Commission did not approve the money until April. Here is what needs to be looked at-Kinder is the Lt. Governor and chairman fo the Tourism Commission. He creates on his own a non-profit - Tour of Missouri Inc, staffs it with his Lt Gov staff and he is chairman of the non-profit. He then uses his position of chairman of the tourism commission to get state money-how is this not an abuse of power? If this article is correct and it is the non-profit that is entering contract-it is the non-profit at risk for breach-not the state. This is not what Kinder was saying on the radio last week. Now there is no contract between Tourism and the non-profit-this smells. The race should go-but this should be looked into.
The irony here is that Kinder personally walked the paperwork through to deliver $95 million of Missouri money to Paul McKee last year, at a rate of $10M a year. (H327) This year, they allowed that Mr. Pottrville McKee could double down, and draw $20M a year, allowing him assurance that he will draw all the funds by the deadline.
The shortfall in the budget? $9.5 Million.
That folks…is irony.
Looks like nothing more than a repulican “Kindergast Machine” at work.
DON’T forget about all the time the State Patrol and MODOT have to put in as well. Still costs the taxpayer.
I applaud Martinez for digging in. Follow the rats and you can find the cheese.
Obviously the taxpayers overwhelmly decided they wanted better. Now it is time to clean up the Repulican mess.
“The Buck Stops Here!” Give ‘em hell Jay!
Reality:…you are not in reality.
Numbers don’t lie…liers lie. 3rd party impact numbers…come on. You can buy whatever number you want…get real.
Wonder why MU will not do anymore research for them….daaahhh!
These responses are obviously prompted by the “Kinder Machine”
Let the tour go on-but lets see where the 2.0 million(state funds) out of the total budget of about 3 goes. In addition, what about all the in-kind from the law officers and the transportation folks-do they have a choice in this and who is picking up that bill? I still have heartburn with if this is such a draw and money maker-getting private sponsorship for 2 million dollars should not be an issue. Just how involved was Kinder in strong arming this money from his two positions-chair of tourism commission and chair of the non-profit he created-this stinks
Danforth is a little off the mark, however his/her concerns are valid, and his/her political slant is felt. I only barely got through accounting I in college and am still able to see that the paltry $1.5mill will be rapidly repaid, and then some, in the form of sales tax (most retailers pay roughly 7-8% sales tax by the 20th of the month). With this being said, I’m not sure how Kinder can get his hands on our sales tax as Danforth suggest, and the 1.5mill put up by the state is indeed paltry compared to the other 2 million dredged up by people wanting this race to happen. The Tour Of Missouri is a win win for Missour no matter who champions the event. As a casual cycling fan, I challenge those opposed to the event to come out and watch a stage finish (assuming it happens this year) then tell us it’s not worthy of our fine state, and yes indeed I’m a Jay Nixon voting Democrat.
Tour of Missouri is very important to Missouri whether you have an interest in cycling or not. Millions do watch this race, thousands will visit Missouri to see it and millions of dollars of revenue will be generated.
The race is cheap, but very effective advertising for the state as well. Cycling is a huge sport, second only to football (soccer) in Europe and growing every year in the United States. Like the Boston Marathon, this is Missouri’s chance to be the premier place for the country’s largest and best cycling event for years to come.
$1.5 Million is a lot of money, but remember it’s an investment that has a quick return, both measurable financially and something that makes us proud to be a part of.