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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Brian Stout, Former President Trump, Henry Heimuller, Joe Biden, Jerry Falwell Jr., Mike Johnson, Ted Cruz, Joe Biden’s dogs, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Bill’s Standard Disclaimer
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E2C Made this a nationally famous event.
ETC and Halloween Town and a desire to steal the money that this event generates.
Part of this post is what I said as public testimony at a St Helens city council meeting regular session. First testimony should not be read into the record from a no named person, I support the police but I am saddened by some of their comments tonight ….the city has issues that need addressed besides wasting time on the money grab of E2C’s funds. The city adding money, an additional $15 making it $25) to the water bill without voter approval, instead of the police or city putting a small levy in front of the taxpayers and let them decide what they want. The city wants to instead force an illegal tax on the taxpayers with- out their approval. Or better yet, the police are trying to steel tourism funds. While complimenting Tina how droll. With the huge amount of money E2C generates every year, the council needs to stop engaging in the false and deceitful accusations made every year against E2C. Stop the fake news, speak out. Let’s keep beating a dead horse to death with the same outcome. The next year and the next year and the next year. E2C passes all audits with flying colors. She has been transparent, answers questions, does the city needs a long contract with E2C- the answer is simple… YES! to protect E2C from the city of St Helens, the police and Councilmen Hubbard…. come on council-- stand up-- take charge – stop wasting time so you can focus on actual pressing city issues. Main Street tried to throw a monkey wrench into Halloween town. And are the main drivers to get rid of E2C in my opinion. But facts are… councilmen Hubbard received a $200,000 grant from Main Street and his wife sits on the board, can you see the conflict and attack dog. Why would we want them to take over E2C’s work? It’s beyond stupidity. Councilmen Hubbard running tourism? When he had to have tourism explained to him ya…great choice, we know that tourism will be bigger and better with him in charge right? Especially with his contacts and his volunteers. All I hear is a giant fizzling sound as tourism disappears and businesses go broke, and the down town is once again dead. What a joke, but no one is laughing. We all know how hard it is to get people to volunteer consistently and year after year. We had hardly any events, barely a 4th of July, because of lack of funds and lack of volunteers, the 4th was passed on to E2C and Tina made it successful again. People come to all the events, local, national and international, you want people to buy local, and support the businesses well its time the city council listens and supports the businesses and the community. What is wrong with the city of St Helens, Only the council can answer that one, the city needs to rename its self, and Dysfunction Town comes to mind. Main Street receives federal, state and yes city funds to promote businesses. Why would the city even consider Main Street to take over a successful tourism program? A program which has started from nothing to a successful and popular program, Main Street wants to rip tourism apart which would rip and make businesses fail. Funding one program to make another one fail. Some people say the city does not generate dime from tourism, I disagree: When businesses thrive, they pay more taxes, with a thriving community there are more businesses, citizens buy more products putting revenue into the city. So yes, tourism encourages growth, money and a good economic diversity where the entire community prospers. Main Street gets a lot of public funds, their bylaw- states they will hold public meetings, yet they do not. Unless you are in the private group you are not allowed to participate but you have the honor of paying for their existence. There are many things happening in the city , things you really need to investigate, please watch the city meeting on you tube. After I made it public about Councilmen Hubbard’s grant of $200,000 from Main Street and that his wife was on the board Hubbard left the meeting saying he quit. But now he came back. Hmmm…getting the grant may have been ok, questionable? The point is I believe he should have recused himself from voting on the tourism issue and he should have said he had a conflict. Furthermore, the rest of the city council should have supported their top notch tourism director from the lies , accusations, from Hubbard , the police and some crazy citizens. Instead they sat there and all we heard was crickets. People not understanding that the hotel/motel tax for tourism was voted in by St Helens voters, it is under a municipal code not under state statue. The money stays in tourism it cannot be used in the city’s coffers for other departments. The collected tax is approximately $120,000, the city get 9% for administrative fees, E2C gets 91% to run tourism, tourism then generates income from ticket sales from all the events. If St. Helens wants to screw E2C over there are other cities which would love to have E2C and its brilliant director.
Tammy
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