Window closing for 2010 Tour of Missouri

The 2010 Tour of Missouri looks increasingly in doubt after tourism officials declined a request from race organizers for a last ditch meeting to save state funding.

Tour organizers Brent Hugh and Mike Weiss requested a meeting with representatives from Gov. Jay Nixon’s office last week, but were referred back to the Missouri Tourism Commission — an eight-member board appointed by the governor.

A Missouri Senate Appropriations Committee markup of HB 2007, the budget bill dealing with tourism and economic development, included language suggesting the commission include $1 million to fund the bicycle race — but all parties agree that funding decisions for specific programs is at the discretion of the governor and the Tourism Commission.

The commission’s chairwoman, Marci Bennett, said by telephone on Wednesday “the decision has already been made. The commission has already been clear on how they feel.”

“We did have a vote on this. We voted on this last November when we put together our proposed budget for this year and that proposal did not include funding for the Tour of Missouri,” Bennett said.

The matter may be complicated as Medalist Sports, the management company that runs the event, announced in early May that it would stop planning for the race if the issue was not resolved by the time the Tour of California race was complete.

The California race, which also is organized by Medalist, ended Sunday.

Hugh and Weiss said the company could still be brought in as a partner but, Weiss said, “the window of opportunity is closing quickly and it should be known that it is Jay Nixon who is closing it.”

Weiss said that without the participation of Medalist, the event would have to be canceled, but refused to say explicitly if Medalist had pulled out of the event.

Chris Aronhalt, a managing partner with Medalist, did not return phone calls from The Democrat seeking comment.

“I talked to Chris today — we would not still be having a dialogue if Medalist wasn’t still interested, but they made it clear that they would back away if the governor did not address the issue,” Weiss said.

Bennett said that with the commission’s budget cut to a slim $13.9 million, the $1 million the Legislature requested for the race would be better spent supporting programs with broader effect, like co-op marketing with about 40 Missouri communities, and it does not intend to fund the race.

Hugh and Weiss argue that the Missouri General Assembly agreed on the use of the funding and believe the allocation represented broad, bipartisan support for the race amongst lawmakers. Organizers believe Nixon is trying to score political points against Tour supporter, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a likely Republican challenger in 2012.

Organizers caused a flap with the governor’s office last week after a Nixon spokesman, Sam Murphey, told a St. Louis newspaper that the office “was unaware of any meeting requests,” and then passed the request back to the Tourism Commission.

“The governor is positioning this politically. What does it take to have the will of the General Assembly and a vocal audience be heard? The answer: It is more important to Jay Nixon to score points than have sincere dialogue,” Weiss said.

Bennett contends that the commission’s decision is not politically motivated.

“This isn’t political. We just don’t have it and we expect more cuts coming through because the governor has to come up with an additional $350 million,” Bennett said.

Bennett cited last week’s announcement by Nixon calling for an additional $350 million to be trimmed from the budget and noted the $13.9 allocated in the appropriation bill might be reduced even more.

Bennett also pointed out that the only specific allocation in the final version of HB 2007 is $70,000 set aside to fund the Missouri State Fair.

Weiss conceded in a telephone interview that “the General Assembly can not force the executive branch to spend the money,” but believes the race, which generated $38.1 million last year brought about 500,000 spectators to the 11 host cities, including Sedalia, is worth the investment.

“They say tourism dollars return $2 for every $1 spent, but we produce $38 for every $1 we spend. If they are trying to generate more revenue for the state this is a sound way to do that,” Weiss said.