Cape & Islands News

Patrick talks tourism, turbines, taxes, turnpike and Swine Flu

A packed house at chamber's tourism town meeting mostly enthusiastic

The 28 Atlantic Restaurant overlooking Pleasant Bay at the Wequassett in East Harwich was packed Thursday to hear Deval Patrick's plans to promote Cape Cod

Governor pitches his agenda, asks questions, agrees to sell pike service centers, questions room tax, other revenue proposals

By Walter Brooks

Paula Peters tried to give Deval Patrick a gift certificate to Plimoth Plantation, but when he discovered it was for only $100, he jokingly handed it back.

Mega-restaurateur Bill Zammer gave the guv a bit of a hard time while an amused chamber president Dick Neitz and chamber director Wendy Norcross look on.

The governor took off his coat and got up close and personal with the Cape's tourism sector at Wequasset.

The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce faced swine flu, a gas tax increase, new room taxes and a host of other concerns with an articulate Governor Deval Patrick Thursday in an impressive display of his skills of persuasion. The comparison to President Obama's style and cool at his press conference last night was inevitable.

The crowd of Cape Cod hospitality industry property owners was augmented with many local town pols and local chamber heads who came to hear how the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism (MOTT) plans to save our summer season despite the threat of a flu pandemic and a proposed 19 cents a gallon gas tax increase to say nothing of a probable 25% increase in the Bay State sales tax.

Mr. Patrick began by eulogizing tourism as a $20 billion a year industry which employs 160,000 Bay Staters to serve our 20 million visitors annually, and the Cape is a big part of that profit pie.

Spyro Mitrokostas of the Dennis Chamber of Commerce, remarked that, "The Governor and the Legislature are in a classic battle with the taxpayer. One wants to raise specific taxes, the other wants to raise general taxes. The problem is that neither wants to cut the budget."

The local town chambers rallied to get a full house for the governor, a stark improvement from the low attendance at some previous such meeting with him arranged by the Cape Cod Chamber which gave the impression that they wanted low attendance to control the discussion.

The governor took off this coat and went to work, touts Cape Wind

Not so this time with over a hundred in attendance including about twenty standees in the adjoining room where The Wequassett served coffee and French pastries.

Complaining with a smile comparing the heat on Cape Cod with his cooler summer home in the Berkshires, Mr. Patrick removed his coat and told the crowd he had visited South Orleans as early as his prep school days  at Milton Academy in the 1970s.

Asked if he agreed that a lot of folks think Cape Wind will be a leading ecotourism attraction in New England, and if he shared that view, he not only agreed but went on to mention that the new offshore wind farms in Denmark were both a boon to tourism and had improved the fishing around their bases which act as artificial reefs to attract sea life.

"If we have to compete with the swine flu this summer, we'll be passing out hand sanitizer at bridges." - Spyro Mitrokostas

Reminded of the Palm Springs California wind farm's popularity with tourists, he countered a negative statement by a real estate broker and said the project was now in the hands of the Department of the Interior and assumed it would get final approval and leases granted shortly.

Swine Flu and this summer's business

The Governor and his MOTT director Betsy Wall tried to assuage the group's concerns about the looming flu pandemic as the alert status was raised to level 5 by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the meeting began.

If we have to compete with the swine flu this summer, we'll be passing out hand sanitizer at the bridges," quipped Spyro Mitrokostas of the Dennis Chamber of Commerce.

Echoing President Obama's admonitions from his press conference last night, Mr. Patrick urged his listeners to "wash your hands frequently and cough into a tissue."

Plimoth Plantation's Paula Peters countered by telling him that she had received a Japanese group's cancellation this morning due to the assumed threat.

A questioner reminded the governor that, although Vice President Joe Biden had said on the Today Show this morning that he wouldn't allow his family to get on a plane, Cape Cod is within a one day automobile drive from a third of the nation's population and that vacationers might think spending the flu season a Cape Cod beach was a good ounce of prevention.

Turnpike tolls to go - if the bids are "fair"

No tolls, like Conn. would encourage more tourists to use the pike to get to Cape Cod and prevent last month's debacle.

As the governor left this reporter asked him if he agreed with his probable Republican opponent next year, Christy Mihos of Yarmouth, who when on the Mass Turnpike Board in 2003 approved a plan to sell the 11 Service Area Plazas to the highest bidder.

The governor was asked if his Turnpike Authority, which has put this plan in process, will sell the stations to the private sector when the bids come in, and will he then pay off the Western Turnpike bonds, which would amount to $166 million and terminate tolls on the Western Turnpike?

Mr. Patrick left himself an out by replying that he would encourage the turnpike board to do so if the bids were fair.

Since the Western Turnpike would then be eligible for Federal Highway Maintenance Funds and people traveling the Western Turnpike would save approximately $130 million in tolls, it seemed slightly disingenuous because private sector bidders would only bid an price which would allow them to make a reasonable profit, and the revenues from the 11 turnpike service areas is a provable amount of money.

This reporter reminded the governor that at present only about 10% of truckers use the pike, and thus detour to other Massachusetts highways like Route 2 and 9 which the state must repair at state expense, and that having eliminated tolls, like Connecticut did recently on their turnpike, would encourage more tourists to use the Mass. Pike to get to Cape Cod.

As Mr. Patrick left the room, a local supporter called after him, "stop messing up," and the governor smiled and promised he would.