Regional visitors bureau is a goal worth pursuing

Think about it: The entire population of Mahoning and Trumbull counties is smaller than most of this nation's large cities, yet we have layers of government that make duplication of public services a fact of life and a waste of taxpayer money. Nonetheless, proponents of regional cooperation have had little success in persuading officeholders that the boundaries separating communities and counties should not be impediments to change.
But hope springs eternal. A meeting is being arranged between the counties' commissioners to discuss the feasibility of forming one convention and visitors bureau to replace the two that now exist, but the significance of the session goes beyond the one issue. It would open the door to future meetings at which the commissioners could explore other cooperative endeavors to save both counties money.
However, change won't come easily, as the reaction from Atty. Lawrence Richards, chairman of the Youngstown-Mahoning County Convention and Visitors Bureau, demonstrates.
Misgivings
"I don't think it's a good idea," Richards said last week, after Mahoning commissioners Edward Reese, Vicki Allen Sherlock and David Ludt proposed meeting with their counterparts in Trumbull -- Michael O'Brien, Joseph Angelo and James Tsagaris -- to talk about the two-county visitors bureau. "They think you can market both counties together, but I don't think that's necessarily true."
We would point out to the chairman that similar misgivings were expressed when the proposal to merge the Youngstown and Warren chambers of commerce surfaced. The naysayers have been proved wrong. The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber is not only a success, but the complaints about one community's being favored over the other are few and far between.
Indeed, chamber president Thomas Humphries would be a valuable resource if the regional visitors bureau becomes a reality. That's because Humphries has found a way to not only satisfy all sides, but to develop a regional agenda that is good for the Mahoning Valley.
We, therefore, do not share Richards' concern that one county would receive more attention from a regional bureau than the other. After all, the board of directors would be made up of individuals from Mahoning and Trumbull, and since the county commissions would be the funding authority, as they now are for their respective entities, it's a safe bet that equal treatment would be the order of the day.
Airport's future
We strongly support the dialogue on regional cooperation that is to take place and urge the six commissioners to act expeditiously because at the heart of the issue is the future of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport. Mahoning commissioners have proposed the creation of the regional visitors bureau to ensure a guaranteed source of funding for the airport. Reese, Sherlock and Ludt have talked about redirecting 2 percent of the 3 percent tax assessed on all hotel and motel rooms in the county to the airport's operating fund. The remaining 1 percent will go to the Youngstown-Mahoning convention bureau. It is now receiving the entire 3 percent.
In Trumbull County, commissioners have assessed a 2.5 percent tax and have talked about increasing it so a portion could be earmarked for the airport.
With a regional convention and visitors bureau, the savings to each county would enable Trumbull commissioners to follow Mahoning's lead and increase the tax to 3 percent, with 2 percent dedicated to the airport. Thus, each county would assign 1 percent to the convention bureau.
This creative approach to governing is something we have long advocated.