If You Build It, Will They Come?: Fiscal Federalism,Local Provision of Public Tourist Amenities, and theVision Iowa Fund

[...]This study shows that tourism did respond positively to the local public amenities built as part ofthe Vision Iowa program. County taxable retail sales rose by 0.9% for every 1% increase in expenditureson the projects. Because the State of Iowa taxes sales at 5% of each additional dollar of sales induced bythe program, the State benefited particularly from its investments in local amenities. The State’s returnaveraged 9.2% per year in increased sales tax revenue induced by the program. Returns to the localcommunity were much smaller at 0.9% per year because the local area invested four times more than thestate and because local sales tax was limited to no more than 2% of induced taxable sales.[...]