McClellan Pushes Tourism Investment Bill as State Funnels Millions to FIFA While South Jersey Waits for Help
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE, NJ - As New Jersey lawmakers advanced tens of millions of taxpayer dollars for World Cup promotions tied to FIFA, one of the wealthiest sports organizations in the world, Assemblyman Antwan L. McClellan is renewing his call for a different approach that reinvests tourism dollars directly into New Jersey communities that generate them.
McClellan is sponsoring Assembly Bill A1460, legislation that would dedicate 100 percent of hotel and motel occupancy fee revenues to arts, historical heritage, and tourism promotion across New Jersey, ensuring that local communities, particularly shore and tourism driven regions like Cape May County and the Cumberland Bay Shore community, see real returns from the visitors they attract. The legislation is co sponsored by Assemblyman Erik K. Simonsen and is currently pending before the Legislature.
“At a time when New Jersey is preparing to spend millions promoting a global sports organization that generates billions of dollars worldwide, our own tourism communities are struggling to fund basic cultural, historical, and economic development needs,” McClellan said. “Cape May County does not need trickle down promises. It needs direct investment.”
FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, routinely reports multi billion dollar revenues over each World Cup cycle, driven by global broadcasting rights, sponsorships, and licensing. Yet New Jersey taxpayers are now being asked to subsidize World Cup related promotions, even as local arts organizations, historic sites, and tourism infrastructure across South Jersey remain underfunded.
Assembly Bill A1460 would correct that imbalance by ensuring that every dollar collected from hotel and motel stays is reinvested into New Jersey’s cultural and tourism economy, including funding for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the New Jersey Historical Commission, tourism promotion through the Division of Travel and Tourism, and the New Jersey Cultural Trust.
“These occupancy fees are paid by visitors who come to experience our towns, our boardwalks, our history, and our culture,” Simonsen added. “That money should be strengthening places like Cape May, Wildwood, Atlantic City, and rural South Jersey, not underwriting international organizations that do not need New Jersey’s help.”
