“Scottsdale’s nightlife scene is also generating sales tax revenue for the city and employment opportunities for the Valley.”
The mistake that many folks repeat – and in the case of promoters, facts that are conveniently ignored – is not taking into account the incremental cost of "nightlife."
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“Scottsdale’s nightlife scene is also generating sales tax revenue for the city and employment opportunities for the Valley.”
The mistake that many folks repeat – and in the case of promoters, facts that are conveniently ignored – is not taking into account the incremental cost of "nightlife."
By “incremental,” I mean costs that are incurred by the taxpayers to accommodate nightlife activities, over and above the norm. The biggest of those is public safety.
The downtown bar district has, from the beginning of the ramp-up under former Mayor Jim Lane, been a net loser for the taxpayers because the incremental cost of calls-for-service by police, fire and ambulance exceeds the incremental tax revenue the bar district generates.
Lane himself challenged that assertion, and directed then-City Treasurer David Smith to study the economics. When the results showed clearly that there was more cost than benefit, Land and friends enlarged the boundary of the study beyond the bar district, seemingly in order to dilute the public safety cost over a larger area of less intense activity.
Sure, you can argue that there are indirect benefits (e.g. bar owners make money). But there are also indirect costs, like those suffered by victims of bar district-related crime.
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