Wisconsin Legislature’s finance committee signs off on spending an extra $1.5 million on tourism marketing

Friday, September 6, 2019

The Wisconsin Legislature’s finance committee has signed off on spending an extra $1.5 million on tourism marketing.

Democratic Gov. Toney Evers’ 2019-21 state budgets would have given the Department of Tourism a further $5 million for marketing. Republicans who control the finance committee walked that back to $1.5 million but held off on releasing the money since the department didn’t have a spending plan.

The department said that it wants to expand marketing efforts to three new markets from a list of 31 cities that includes Detroit, Phoenix and Denver.

The committee granted a motion releasing the money on a 12-4 vote on Wednesday. The motion requires tourism officials to report to the committee by Sept. 1, 2020, on the size of the audience reached, department website clicks and cities targeted.

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