In article ,
says...

On Fri, 28 Dec 2012 09:07:36 -0500, iBoaterer wrote:



What does DC have to offer the US in the form of revenue and expansion?

Tourism.

Most people who visit DC stay in Maryland or Virginia.
Other than street vendors, DC does not make much money off of them,.
Virtually all of the attractions are free.
Tourists seldom get out of the national monument area.
Tour guides advise them to stay south of Pennsylvania avenue.

Those would be the areas the government would hold on to in any
circumstance.

Tourists need food, transportation, lodging, etc. Ever look at the taxes
generated by lodging alone? Tourists generate more than half of D.C's
sales tax alone!!

http://tinyurl.com/cmryjf3

Which says in part:

"As the seat of the U.S. government and heart of American democracy,
Washington, D.C., is a city that relies heavily on the tourism industry
? so much so that visitors regularly generate more than half of the
city's annual sales taxes.
So it should come as something of a relief to city officials, especially
after a year in which they were forced to close a $322 million budget
gap, that the $5 billion tourism industry grew strongly in 2010 and is
expected to close out 2011 on a high note. Regardless, a weaker forecast
for conventions means the city will have to continue drawing in leisure
travelers, with more and more of them coming from abroad, while picking
up the convention pace in the coming years.
"In 2012 we won't realize as many citywide [conventions] as we did in
2011, however we're optimistic as we're going to focus our efforts and
initiatives on going after the domestic market and the international
visitors market," said Elliott Ferguson, president and CEO of
Destination DC, the city's tourism marketing agency.
In 2010, according to the agency, 15.54 million domestic visitors
flocked to the nation's capital, a 5.1 percent increase over the prior
year. They spent $5.68 billion, up 8.2 percent from 2009, with lodging
and food accounting for a large portion of that total. Things seem to be
looking up for 2011, too. Comparing July 2010 to the same month a year
later, occupancy is roughly holding steady, while average daily rates
ticked up 1.5 percent, according to Smith Travel Research"