Tourism boondoggle KO’d: Mass.Gov axes free-spending agency

The Boston Herald reports:

Gov. Deval Patrick is pulling the plug on the taxpayer-funded Tourism Massachusetts, which had become a political embarrassment due to its lavish spending, cozy contracts with Democratic operatives and a controversial globe-trotting president.
Patrick, who last month restored $5 million for Tourism Massachusetts that former Gov. Mitt Romney had previously cut, reversed himself yesterday by refusing to sign a contract with the nonprofit outfit tasked with promoting international tourism.
A Patrick spokeswoman would only say officials believe the two-year-old Tourism Massachusetts wasn’t working.

But sources say the organization, backed in the past by key Democratic legislators, was “too hot” after a series of articles by the Herald found lax oversight of the group’s spending and infighting among board directors.
Among other things, one Democratic-tied firm netted hundreds of thousands of dollars from Tourism Massachusetts to produce a video for a Web site starring a former British boyband singer and aspiring “American Idol” contestant.

One wonders why the government needs to be in the tourism promotion business? Can you imagine how corrupt nationalized health care will be?