Receiving a presentation from the local Economic Development Coalition last Tuesday, Asheville City Councilman Gordon Smith noted the targeted economic sectors did not include tourism. Tourism, he pointed out, is notorious for providing sub-living wages. That said, why do we have tourism taxes? They divert funds that could be used to pad the scrappy wages of those in the industry’s employ to TDA’s that hold upscale summits to try to figure out how to get more scrappy jobs to increase government revenue – and then create EDC’s with their summits to try to figure out how to increase the scrappy wages.