Prop A divides tourism industry

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Peter Herschend, co-owner and vice president of Silver Dollar City, and Russ Campbell, owner of Fantastic Caverns, have a few things in common. Both own and operate popular family entertainment spots that have been in their families for decades.|ret||ret||tab|

What they don't have in common are their views on the Nov. 7 Scenic Missouri ballot initiative, also known as Proposition A. This proposal would regulate the billboard advertising industry and stop construction of new billboards on interstate and primary highways, such as Interstate 44, Interstate 70 and U.S. 65. |ret||ret||tab|

Herschend publicly supports the initiative and is a member of the Save Our Scenery 2000 coalition. He said Missouri already has 13,500 billboards just along major highways three times as many per mile as its eight neighboring states and the outdoor advertising industry needs to be regulated. |ret||ret||tab|

Campbell is not along in opposing the initiative. The Missouri Outdoor Advertising Association, the Missouri Cave Owners Association and Lamar Outdoor Advertising, led by the Citizens Against Tax Waste Committee in Jefferson City, claim that if the initiative becomes law, all outdoor advertising could be banned. That, they say, would hurt small businesses and the tourism industry, infringe on property rights and cost taxpayers millions. |ret||ret||tab|

The Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau has no position on the ballot initiative, according to Executive Director Tracy Kimberlin. The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce Governmental Relations Committee met July 21 to review the issue and heard presentations from Herschend and attorney Bill May, who represents the Missouri Outdoor Advertising Association. The committee had not yet taken a position on the issue as of press time. |ret||ret||tab|

Herschend said a survey performed by Silver Dollar City a few years ago indicated that billboard advertising is the least effective method of advertising for SDC, which is in the process of scaling down the number of its billboards.|ret||ret||tab|

"Silver Dollar City at one time had 120 outdoor advertising signs in Missouri. Today, there are less than 60. By the end of the decade, we will have 10 or fewer," Herschend said. "We've been phasing down our number of signs for probably half a dozen or so years, before the Save Our Scenery committee was formed. From our standpoint, it's a matter of allocation of marketing resources ... trying to reach a family already coming down the highway at 60 mph is not the most effective use of those resources for us." |ret||ret||tab|

The proposition will not, according to Save Our Scenery 2000, force existing billboards to be taken down, stop erection of on-premise signs, affect official traveler information highway signs or raise taxes. SOS 2000 claims Missouri's billboard laws are among the weakest in the nation. Billboards were removed in Hawaii, Maine and Vermont, and Alaska's state constitution prohibits billboards. New billboards were prohibited in Rhode Island in 1990, and Oregon capped its number of billboards on state and federal roads and highways in 1975. Nineteen other states prohibit new billboards in unzoned areas along interstates.|ret||ret||tab|

May, who called the initiative "clearly an anti-business proposal," said 85 percent of Missouri's billboards promote businesses employing fewer than 50. |ret||ret||tab|

"Outdoor advertising costs about 2 cents per exposure for the small business who can't pick and choose their advertising exposure, that's far more inexpensive and effective. It targets the traveling public, and if you're in tourism or a travel-related field, there is no substitute for billboard advertising," May said. |ret||ret||tab|

Fantastic Caverns' director of public relations, Kirk Hansen, said Fantastic Caverns owns approximately 70 billboard signs in southwest Missouri and leases several more from sign companies. He called Proposition A a "slap in the face" to Missouri businesses, especially those in the travel and tourism industries, which he said depend on billboard advertising to direct travelers to their establishments. Hansen also said the rush is on for businesses that use outdoor advertising to put up as many signs as they possibly can in the months before the election.|ret||ret||tab|

"Thanks to the Prop A group, anyone who uses billboard advertising is now putting up as many signs as they can afford. What this all boils down to is certain groups don't like billboards and want them removed, and they're finding a way to get rid of them regardless of the consequences for anyone else," Hansen said. "It's a real disservice to travelers, as well." |ret||ret||tab|

May quoted a study performed by Villanova University marketing professor Charles R. Taylor, PhD, that indicates a 19 percent revenue loss for Missouri if the initiative is passed, and said the fine print in Proposition A does not describe the full effect of the initiative.|ret||ret||tab|

According to the Citizens Against Tax Waste Committee, the initiative would actually ban all outdoor advertising except official state signs. The committee estimates the direct cost of the initiative's implementation would be between $525 million and $600 million to compensate landowners and billboard companies for the taking of their private property, and the indirect cost to Missouri businesses and the tourism industry would be in the hundreds of millions. |ret||ret||tab|

Carter Clarke, Lamar Outdoor Advertising's vice president and general manager, said the most important aspect of the billboard initiative is that it's a property rights and tax rights issue. |ret||ret||tab|

"This initiative would affect everyone employers, employees, landowners and taxpayers," he said. Lamar's Springfield office is responsible for approximately 900 billboards in southwest Missouri, and Clarke said the company primarily focuses on maintaining those signs, not building new ones.[[In-content Ad]]