Why do Virginia officials want cruise ships to dock at Virginia ports? In addition to the fees (up to $10,000/night for a 900-person floating hotel), there's plenty of spending money in the pockets of passengers. When a 184-passenger cruise ship docked at Norfolk, the average tourist spent about $50/day in town. Do the math, and you can see why Norfolk wants more cruise ships to dock at Nauticus.
On December 7, 2000, the USS Wisconsin took up residence next to the Nauticus museum in Norfolk harbor. That attraction is very good for tourism in a Navy-oriented community... and business from cruise ship passengers is even better.
At that time, the Nauticus dock could handle only afternoon visits from cruse ships. Overnight cruises to the Carribean used the Newport News Marine Terminal, across Hampton Roads. Newport News officials loved the income associated with the cruise business - after all, the tourists required minimal services but contributed substantial tax revenue to the city. However, the Newport News Marine Terminal was too busy handling cargo; it could not expand to accomodate more cruise business.
While the state's Virginia Tourism Corp studied how to attract more cruise ship visits to the state, the Newport News Industrial/Economic Development Authority studied how to ensure they continued to stop in Newport News. However, Norfolk was also angling for a larger slice of the tourism pie as well, and by 2002 the cruise ships were docking at Town Point in Norfolk, on the other side of Nautilus from the USS Wisconsin.
Elected officials in Tidewater will all nod their heads and agree in public that it's great to have tourists in the area, and they will celebrate the Hampton Roads region as a destination to visit. The HarborLink connecting Nauticus in Norfolk and the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton was initiated, in part, by the Norfolk Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Hampton Convention and Visitors Bureau. Visitors who stay long enough to see *both* communities are likely to spend the night and buy meals at various restaurants in the region. The travel and tourism-related businesses in both North Hampton Roads and South Hampton Roads will benefit, if they can combine efforts to convince visitors to come to the Hampton Roads region rather than go to the North Carolina beaches, Richmond, Atlanta, etc.
When the cameras are turned off, however, it's natural for those same elected officials to direct their staff to ensure the sales taxes from the tourists are returned to their particular jurisdiction. If the local sales tax collections are high, then the local property tax rate can be kept low and the local voters can be kept happy.
That's the way the system is supposed to work, right? There's nothing immoral about voters telling officials that taxes are too high, and replacing those officials if they don't ensure things improve fast enough within the voting districts. Virginians were leaders in a revolution 225 years ago that ensured representation came along with taxation... so Virginians should be expected to use their votes to define the local priorities for paying taxes and receiving services. If some officials are effective in raising revenue from non-voters, don't those officials deserve to be re-elected?
The Hampton Roads region is a collection of competing as well as cooperating jurisdictions - that ought not to surprise you, even if the media coverage of Virginia politics is heavily weighted to the partisan races for national office. Cooperation in the region on waste disposal keeps costs low for every jurisdiction in Hampton Roads. Cooperation on regional tourism increases sales tax revenues across the region. But at some point, those political lines dividing jurisdictions on the regional map become critical.
Newport News tax revenue doesn't fund Norfolk schools, so it matters where those tourists actually spend their money. A percentage of the state sales tax goes back to the jurisdiction - not the region - where the tax revenue was collected. Meals taxes and occupancy taxes on hotel rooms are local taxes. Though some of that revenue may be dedicated to the regional tourism organizations, most is used primarily for providing services (especially schools...) in one jurisdiction.
Local officials need local (as well as state and Federal) revenue to pay teachers, maintain buildings, etc. When tax revenue is credited to one particular jurisdiction, then voters in that particular city/county can receive good services from their local government along with a low property tax rate. If Poquoson doesn't happen to get much business from cruise ships docking at Newport News Marine Terminal, then landowners in Poquoson may have to pay higher property taxes than landowners in Newport News...
The Virginia Port Authority started to plan a major upgrade of the Newport News Terminal before September 11, 2001. The Virginia Port Authority is a state agency, however, and it had to focus on regional cooperation. It could not select a "winner" in a competition for building infrastructure to attract cruise ships, and provide state funding for just one city or county in Hampton Roads. Therefore, it is not surprising that one of the local jurisdictions in Hampton Roads ended up committing local funds to build a terminal dedicated to cruise ships.
In 2004, Norfolk committed $36 million in city funds to build a new terminal next to Nauticus. (The Virginia Port Authority will contribute an additional $5 million for improving the piers and other infrastructure.) The city calculated that it would have to almost double the number of people choosing Norfolk as their port of embarkation for a cruise, but decided it was a good risk.1
