ARE YOU ONE OF THE PRIVILEGED FEW WHO MADE MONEY OFF OF MARDI GRAS?

Alexandria/Pineville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) Executive Director Sherry Smith-Ellington said that "a substantial economic impact" was had to Alexandria's Mardi Gras festivities this weekend. (See: "Alexandria Mardi Gras throws some help to businesses").

Eating in a restaurant or staying in a hotel while are two of the types of businesses that make a profit from Mardi Gras. id. To that listing you can add gas stations, convenience stores, bakeries that make king cakes, and stores that sell Mardi Gras beads and supplies.

But besides the waitresses or waiters at local restaurants, I have never heard of any workers at those establishments making any extra money due to Mardi Gras.

Also, the vast majority of workers and businesses are left out of this economic impact.

The true winners of Mardi Gras' economic impact is the governments in the sales taxes that they collect.

Against those sales tax revenues you have to subtract the amount of money spent on barricades, putting them along the parade route and picking them up afterwards, fire, police, and trash cleanup, and the overtime paid to those workers.

So unless you are among the special few that reap the benefits, the rest of us to not get any economic impact from Mardi Gras and have to pay for these celebrations.

See Also: "WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH CONVENTIONS IN ALEXANDRIA?", "BRET'S CITY NOTEBOOK FOR APRIL 10, 2011", "A PROBLEM WITH PUBLIC FUNDS USED FOR FESTIVALS", "LET'S LOOK AT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN TERMS OF REAL MONEY", ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOR MARDI GRAS? GIVE ME A BREAK and the posts linked thereunder, and "WHAT IS THE BUSINESS OF THE CITY OF ALEXANDRIA?".