Amador County – The Amador County Board of Supervisors last week approved a letter of support for Amador County Fair and 77 other fairs whose budgets are threatened by the governor’s proposed budget.
The board OK’d a letter, after getting a report from Troy Bowers, CEO of the Amador County Fair, which detailed local and state impacts of cuts proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown, totaling 100 percent of fair funding by the state across the board. The board approved a letter of opposition relative to Brown’s proposed $32 million cuts in state money that partially fund California’s 78 fairs.
Fair Board member Robert Manassero said last week that it amounted to a cut of about $200,000 to $300,000 for the Amador Fair Foundation, and included salaries and benefits. He said fundraising was not going to make the difference and the fair would change. Bowers has said repeatedly that the fair will continue in the future, though the state proposal of 100 percent funding to fairs would cut about 25 percent of the Amador Fair’s operating budget. The Fair Foundation was established a few years ago to manage fair funds.
In a letter to Supervisors, Bowers said “fair funding is not set in stone. Industry leaders can and will support strategic funding reductions combined with greater local control and autonomy.” He said a “strategic approach will protect the fair network and allow it to increase its ability to generate tax revenue and jobs.”
Bowers said the “California fair network” generates revenue, and last year turned $32 million in state funding into “more than $126 million in direct tax income for the state,” and “more than 25,000 full-time job equivalents statewide.”
He said “fairs drive local economies,” and the closing of 31 of the most at-risk fairs would hurt all fairs because of their interconnectivity. In Amador County, he said the fair generates about $3.5 million in spending activity, which creates a “ripple effect of economic benefit for the state.”
Amador Fair’s support industries and attendees generate the equivalent of 38 full time jobs and $1.3 million in annual salary, and $29,000 in business tax is collected in “state and local sales taxes, transient occupancy taxes and possessory interest taxes and fees.”
Bowers said the Amador Fair is also the “largest source of funding for local charities and non-profits and generates more than $110,000 each year for the Jackson Lions, Jackson Rotary, Amador High volleyball, FFA ag boosters and others.”
He said 4-H, FFA and Junior Grange students together earn more than $300,000 for college expenses at the Amador County Fair’s annual Junior Livestock Auction.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
