A month or so ago, I gave you some encouraging news from Napa County government: Its hotel tariff—the 12 percent transient occupancy tax (TOT) assessed per night for any stay of less than 30 days—has been bringing a lot of money into the county. And this is the kind of money that stays long after the visitors move on.
Unlike the self-help sales tax for flood control and our heavily earmarked property taxes, TOT revenues—minus a single-digit percentage for parks and open space—drain straight into the general fund, according to county auditor-controller Pam Kindig. That’s cash that can be used for pretty much anything our elected officials (advised by staff) care to fund.
The city of Napa has also seen an increase in its 12 percent TOT revenue, says revenue chief V. Allen Isidro. “We’re going to beat the budgeted $8 million for the current fiscal year,” he writes in a friendly email accompanying his figures. The spreadsheet—containing hard numbers through May and an estimate for June—shows 2008 already outpacing last year, with the heaviest overnight-visitor months expected in September and October.
Isidro’s figures also demonstrate that overnight tourism in Napa has increased steadily since the turn of the century, from less than $4.4 million in 2000 to more than $8.4 million in 2007.
In June of last year, the city took in more than $833,000 in TOT revenue; this year, the total for the same month was projected at $903,000. We’ll see what the rest of the year looks like: September’s TOT has grown from less than $506,000 in 2000 to more than $1 million in 2007, while October’s receipts climbed from about $510,600 (2000) to $1,011,700 (2007).
Here’s what really interested me in Isidro’s figures: Even 2001—the year of the devastating 9/11 attacks, followed by an economic famine for the travel and tourism industry—put only a temporary dent in the TOT increase. By December, Napa was once again ahead of the year before, and proceeds have continued to increase.
With new hotels and condo-hotels coming on line—Westin Verasa open now, Ritz-Carlton on the way—future TOT revenues are looking good. Napans, even the ones who carp about “catering to tourists,” should like this trend, because it brings with it money that stays in the community.
Spectator scam
Investigative reporting has never been my specialty, but when the wine world whipped itself into a brief frenzy over the “Wine Spectator scam,” I had to take a closer look.
Briefly: We all know Wine Spectator, the influential magazine based jointly in New York and California, with its beautifully restored landmark building near downtown Napa. The publication is famous for its taste-making decisions, be they where a wine’s flavor rates on a 100-point scale or whether a restaurant’s wine list is worthy of a special award.
The recent flap concerns the magazine’s Award of Merit to L’Osteria Intrepido, ostensibly of Milan, but in reality a mere construct that existed only on the Internet—and solely to embarrass Wine Spectator.
Oh-ho-ho! chortled the wine blogosphere, avid (as Lilliputians tend to be) to topple the giant.
Hoaxmeister Robin Goldstein tells me that wasn’t his intention; he says he wanted to raise the question of whether awards that require an application fee were objective (it costs $250 to have Wine Spectator assess your wine list for the award program).
“My intention was to investigate the standards for these food and wine awards,” says Goldstein, whose “Fearless Critic” series of restaurant guides inspired the name of his Potemkin eatery: “L’Osteria Intrepido” means “Fearless Restaurant.” Heh.
“The truth is more complicated than a sound bite,” says Wine Spectator editor Tom Matthews, who was kind enough to call me from New York to discuss the flap; he also tells me neither the New York Times nor CBS News bothered to contact him for comment before running their stories on the affair.
Matthews says his staff left phone messages at the Milan phone number Goldstein had obtained, and looked up Osteria L’Intrepido on the Internet, where they found its address and a series of plausible reviews on the popular Chowhound website for restaurant lovers, including one final, double-edged post on Aug. 18, just as the scandal was breaking: “‘Osteria L’Intrepido is worth finding,’ wrote “Spill the Beans,” says Matthews. The post continued, “Let them order your food and wine. Go all out! Unless you’re a real expert, they know what they’re doing more than you do.”
Another poke in the eye for Wine Spectator, but Goldstein insists this one didn’t come from his finger. “I honestly don’t know [who it was],” he says. “My guess is, it was some prankster.”
Dey departs
Having majored in English at what some are pleased to call The World’s Greatest University, I have quite a number of words in my vocabulary. But when called upon to describe the departure of Dey Laboratories from Napa, I can only summon a term I already knew freshman year: It stinks. Redolantly (OK, Dad?).
One of Napa’s largest employers, Dey will take hundreds of jobs out of the community when it moves. Perhaps worse, the city and county will lose one of its biggest-hearted corporate citizens. The pharmaceutical firm donated to everything, from health clinics to the Dreamweavers community theater troupe.
We knew things would change when Dey CEO Mel Engle was replaced last year (only to be quickly snapped up by the very wise Barry Schuler for his Raydiance project). Now that the rest of the company is departing, local nonprofits will suffer. If your firm can step up, please do.
