Good News! Pandemic Funds Bought $700,000 Logo for Arizona
Your tax dollars at work
Arizona has a new tourism logo, and it only cost the U.S. taxpayer $700,000. Yep, you read that right—$700,000.
That’s the amount spent on a rebranding effort that, according to state tourism director Lisa Urias, was needed to showcase Arizona as more than just a winter escape for snowbirds.
The old Arizona wasn’t diverse enough. Urias and her team apparently spent a year talking with 2,000 people in listening sessions across the state.
Hopefully, $700,000 later, they can sell people on Arizona being “more than a sunshine-laden land of golf courses and resorts.”
What’s most interesting is that this $700,000 splurge came from federal pandemic relief funds. Under the American Rescue Plan, the U.S. Economic Development Administration received $3 billion in funding to address communities harmed by COVID.
Part of this funding—$750 million—went to the EDA’s Travel, Tourism, and Outdoor Recreation program, and Arizona received $5,898,898. Therefore, I guess $700,000 on a logo is a drop in the bucket. Your tax dollars at work.
The American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion stimulus package, passed the full House by a close 219–212 vote, with every Republican and two Democrats voting against it. The Senate modified and passed its version with a razor-thin 50–49 vote.
Alaskan Republican Senator Dan Sullivan missed the vote due to attending his father-in-law’s funeral in Alaska. His spokesperson confirmed that Sullivan opposed the bill. Still, even if he had been present, the outcome wouldn’t have changed, as Vice President Kamala Harris was available to break any tie in favor of the Democrats. Harris only needed to vote “On the Motion to Proceed” not the actual bill.
The final amended bill returned to the House and was passed by a vote of 220–211, again strictly along party lines except for one Democrat, Jared Golden, who joined the Republican opposition. Biden signed the bill in March of 2011.
“Vibrant Arizona” a year-long rebranding process cost $700,000 paid for with federal pandemic relief funds! https://t.co/noIJmYeGbI
— Ellen Streiff (@EllenStreiff) August 24, 2024
This tweet from @AZTourismNews cost taxpayers $700,000.https://t.co/W71DYlSOnChttps://t.co/eMlIW6Assn pic.twitter.com/dEHYJ8vdIm
— Brian Anderson (@AZBrianAnderson) August 25, 2024
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Comments
They forgot road rage depictions…
$700,000 to design the new logo, but how much to put up new signs along all the highways in Arizona? At perhaps $700 to $1,000 per sign and 10 government workers to put up each sign—we’ve got to be talking zillions, not to mention printing all new brochures, etc, etc.
Shameful!
Covid….keeps on giving.
There is nothing that Covid cannot do!
I paid $350 for the logo for my website
did I pay too much?
Heart & Soul is a designated “minority supplier,” who “is committed to building and maintaining a diverse hiring pool that offers equal opportunity to BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ professionals.”
Way to redistribute the wealth to “your” constituents, Katie.
This is what happens when the Republicans choose as their gubernatorial candidate someone who runs mostly on a platform that the last election was stolen. You lose.
Let’s see how well that comment ages when she’s in the US Senate, junior.
They should have come to me first. I would have ripped off the Miami Dolphins color scheme for half that price.
If it were just a shade bluer, New Mexico would be suing.
So when democrats misuse “Pandemic Funds” nothing much happens to them. They are not legally required to return the money. But when a Republican allegedly misuses the funds then all hell breaks loose and they are required to return the misused funds.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/iowa-governor-improperly-used-450000-covid-funds-salaries-audit-finds-rcna5753The scam goes one level deeper. The Democrats write “allowable” uses so vaguely that they can determine post hoc that the same type of expenditure is or isn’t qualified, depending on who the spender was. Here, the funds were used to “repair tourism revenue damages caused by COVID.” As if a logo is going to contribute more than incidentally to that.
Logos and slogans are only effective negatively, when they become an object of widespread scorn. Like one of our top three commie states adopting, “The spirit of Massachusetts is the spirit of America.” Or adopting “Virginia is for lovers” during a pivotal state case defending the constitutionality of criminalizing homosex.