Having been in business of one form or another most of my life, and self employed most of that time, I have a bit of understanding of the difficulties of not only being successful but the simple fact of survival. The most desirable jobs in Mariposa County are in Government, County, State and Federal. The least desirable have proven to be private, non-corporate, self funded private endeavors that require much effort and capital to survive.
Often capital resources are diminished by the regulatory needs of government. I can recall any number of such endeavors that have come and gone during my life here in Mariposa County. We were the most successful when the basis of our effort reached a combination of clients. That would be a small local base having a modest economic reserve, augmented by a larger economic market that brought to Mariposa County the resources developed elsewhere. For example, the thirty years working as a wedding photographer was successful because 98% of our clients came from outside the county and brought with them the ability to pay for our services. In other words, the market for our services locally was small and poorly funded.
But something changed over the years. That something was Tourism. Tourism brought with it revenue for businesses small and large to not only survive, but to grow. The last few years that market has become world wide.
What brought this change? Yosemite and the desire for peoples of the world to visit it and the environment that surrounded Yosemite. We know this because of the tax revenue generated by the lodging industry related to Yosemite. The standard of living in Mariposa County for many is still quite poor for many who do not participate in this industry. It is estimated, based on tax revenues, that the value of the presence of Yosemite National Park in our county is in excess of $270 million moving through the local economy. This is based on an economic study paid for by the Park Service, by an independent firm in 2006. The total impact of Yosemite on the four counties surrounding the Park is in excess of $400 million but because most of the lodging related to Yosemite is in Mariposa County, we are the largest benefactor. Not just the more than $10 million in Bed Tax to the County, but also the revenue generated by many businesses, large and small, which represents the other 90%. One major problem with this industry is that too high a percentage of the employees are seasonable and often at the bottom of the economic ladder. This reliance on Yosemite, and the dependence that we have developed, is not recognized by all of our leaders. But I am sure that the small business owners outside the Park know quite well.
We have a population under 19,000 citizens. A high percentage are retired and their source of income is not the Park. Another percentage are government employees of all agencies and with the exception of county, their income is from tax revenue generated elsewhere. This means that the value of the services that Mariposa County enjoys provided by the state and Federal Government is greater than the actual taxes paid by Mariposa County residents. Most everyone else depends to one degree or another on the visitor to our county, buying goods, seeking entertainment, renting rooms, etc. It is not that we would not have small business here if there were no Park providing tax base, wages, investment and return on investment. Yes we would. But simply based on our population spread throughout the market, the town of Mariposa might have it’s 2000 or so residents, but there would be much less in the way of sustainable goods and service offerings and opportunity.
I lived here and was in business when, for all intents and purposes, Yosemite National Park was closed. I know the difference. That was WWII. I know what happened when Hwy 140 was closed for four and one half months during the Ferguson Slide. The county coffers did not suffer because the Bed Tax was paid. People did not stop going to Yosemite, they just went another way. What suffered were the small dependent businesses along Hwy 140 that were structured to having roughly six months of visitors. A lot of people were laid off. A lot of goods were not sold. And there was a reduction in sales tax revenue reflecting the local economy. By the way, the sales tax revenue, adjusted for changing rates, has yet to recover to its pre-rock slide level.
We are still suffering declines in housing creation, land development and sales, non tourism related goods and services, and anything that is not funded by a government program. Money is still being spent on social programs funded by state or federal programs, but that is being done from deficit creating sources, (i.e. state and federal). Eventually someone is going to have to balance the state or federal budget and the source of that revenue is us. Already this fiscal year the state has taken $600,000 out of our General Fund in the form of a loan to the state that, under current conditions of a state deficit of a so called balanced budget, is unlikely to ever be repaid to the county.
A fairly new organization in the county, the Mariposa County Independent Business Alliance, is sponsoring a presentation and workshop for anyone who wishes to attend, at the United Methodist Church Parish Hall, 4991 6th St, on Monday next, November 2, starting at 8:00 A.M. The purpose of the meeting is to visit with Jeff Milchen, co-founder of the American Independent Business Alliance about economic localization and community empowerment. This free and open to the public meeting is being sponsored by a group of local business persons and is not involved with Mariposa County Government. None the less, I would expect that they should be interested in this meeting as it will be directed towards solving problems, not creating new ones.
The need for the private sector to become aggressive about economic development is to a great deal related to the lack of progress on sections of the new General Plan designed to further the private, non tourist economy of Mariposa County. It is important that the public become interested in the future of this county because we have had many unrealized opportunities to stabilize and grow our economy. The problem is that while county government has to be thoughtful about developing solutions to many issues, it has failed to act in a aggressive and positive way. I suppose some folks believe that lack of effort on the counties part is one way to stop growth in the county. That hasn’t proved true in the past.
Having been around this stuff for a long time, I am very aware of the policy, spoken or unspoken, that to develop poor quality plans or never implementing what planning has been done is one way to prevent growth. The facts are the growth that has come over the last 40 years, that many people are unhappy about, is the result of inadequate planning and implementation of the planning that was done. For example, the Mariposa Airport is in trouble. A citizens committee is trying to do something about the possibility of the closure of the terminal building. They need only to look at the adopted General Plan and the element that deals with economic development to find that the creation of a Small Light Industrial section at the Airport needs to be examined as a solution. Mariposa Airport was created by Federal Funds during the late Depression as an Economic Development Tool. It’s improvements over the years were also Federally funded. Each of these developments left Mariposa County with a liability if the plans to incorporate the Airport in some form of economic stimulus was accomplished. Never done. The reason that the Airport has been able to exist at all over the years is that the County has been able to find someone to lease the operation. Eager to be involved in an Airport brought a number of concessionaires to Mariposa, each leaving or not renewing the contract because it could never show a return on investment. The best periods were when the hanger space could be used to operate a auxiliary business, but even then it was dependent on an individual having the skill to offer a service and a demand for that service. When that ended, then it was no longer feasible. In the mean time the airport survived because someone was willing to try and make it go regardless of the cost.
In the end the County could no longer find such a person and had to take over operations at a loss. And the budget problems of the county and the state taking a large part of the General Fund made the problem worse.
There are solutions for the private economy in Mariposa County but having it controlled by government is not the answer. Perhaps a strong element of backers of a private economy can bring a new vision to the table, not controlled by consultants (terrible waste of money) brought in at great expense. Some of the tools are available already. We must be ready to use them and not in the context of a political system which is happy to see it’s financial support grow, but rejects and does not support a private economy not controlled by County Government.