In an attempt to understand the dynamics of the City of Sun Valley Budget, I have undertaken an economic study of the Sun Valley Resort Area. We all realize that the local economy has been in decline, however there exists no analysis available to inform us as to exactly how large the decline is and how long it has been in evidence. This is what I set out to do:

Provide a quantitative, data-based, perspective on the local resort area economy.

In the process of conducting this study many discoveries have been made and some have provided additional insight with respect to market conditions, competitive resort economies, and marketing effectiveness. Each are summarized in the presentation below.

Approximately 30% of the City Budget revenue comes from the Local Option Tax (LOT). The primary use of this tax is to pay for the development of infrastructure, city services, and increased maintenance associated with resort visitors. As the City Council prepares the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), it is important to have a reasonable understanding of the expected LOT revenue, as it is preferable to pay for infrastructure needs with the LOT revenue.

Unfortunately, the results of this economic study have found that the local economy is in significant decline, not only in the past year but for over 8 years. This has put continuing pressure on revenue streams for funding of City infrastructure and maintenance and is one of the reasons that the Sun Valley City Council is considering an improvement bond to fund portions of the CIP.

The presentation at the link below is a detailed summary of the findings of this economic study including quantitative analysis of the state of the local economy, historical trends, and comparisons to competitive resort economies. A limited case study is also presented to facilitate a better understanding of controlling infrastructure considerations, the influence of available amenities, and marketing effectiveness on economic development and growth.

The presentation is available at the following link:

http://www.slideshare.net/youngmanra/sun-valley-resort-area-economy

Please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, or additional input that you might have. I can be contacted via the following channels:

Email: bob@bobyoungman.com

Telephone: 208-721-8404