County OKs Tourism Impact Study
By Holly Crocco
Tourism brought in nearly $92 million to Putnam County in 2025 – a $3.4 million increase from the year prior, according to Tourism Director Tara Keegan. That equates to $309 per household in revenue, or a total annual savings of $11 million for taxpayers.
Or does it?
During the County Legislature’s Oct. 14 Economic Development Committee meeting, Keegan said 2025 was the first year tourism revenue in Putnam surpassed the $90 million threshold, and she expects to find that 2026 was even more successful, once those numbers are available.
However, now that visitors are coming to Putnam, some say the county needs to devote money to managing the impact of tourism on the municipalities, otherwise, taxpayers are paying for the garbage pickup, emergency services, and infrastructure needs that go along with the influx in human and vehicular traffic.
Legislator Nancy Montgomery, D-Philipstown, said the request to allocate money in the budget each year for tourism needs to be a broader conversation about not just promoting tourism, but managing it.
Keegan sought $60,000 from the county for 2027, to match the $60,000 in funding she’s expecting from the I Love NY program. However, in committee, the Legislature only approved $40,000, which is what the department received in 2026.
The $60,000 from the state remains untouched.
“The county is spending money encouraging people to visit, and we have a lot of responsibly for the impacts these visitors create,” said Montgomery, asking how much of the I Love NY money and matching funds will be devoted to garbage cleanup, emergency services, and road and infrastructure impacts.
“That is strictly for advertising, but that is set by the state,” said Keegan. “My role as tourism director is the marketing and showing how great our county is, how great of a gem it is.”
Montgomery disagreed. “I think other counties do manage tourism,” she said. “I don’t think that’s the role of tourism. I think it’s to get them here, but what happens when they get here?”
She suggested the county develop a tourism impact destination management plan.
Legislator Erin Crowley, R-Mahopac, said the county can’t encourage tourism and then be upset about the impacts.
“You’re talking about cleaning up garbage when you thoughtfully funded Boscobel and Shakespeare (Festival) and funded all these things last year, and now you’re complaining about it,” she told Montgomery.
Crowley argued that garbage pickup is something residents already pay for in their town and village taxes, and that devoting county money to only certain locations isn’t fair.
Legislator Amy Sayegh, R-Mahopac Falls, had similar sentiments.
“That’s what we pay our local town taxes for – our property taxes,” she said. “It’s not up to the county to bail out every town every time they have a pothole.”
Montgomery, however, said various communities have different needs. “Putnam Valley has marine patrol, Philipstown doesn’t… does that mean every town should have marine patrol, even though they’re without a river or a lake?” she asked.
Legislator Jake D’Angelo, R-Carmel, proposed the county set aside funding to complete an impact study, like Montgomery suggested, which Birmingham agreed with.
“Yes, we are making impacts by what we’re doing with tourism,” said Birmingham. “We have got to realize that has a footprint that we leave behind. Whether it’s trash, whether it’s traffic, whether it’s stress on our emergency services… Maybe now is good time for us to take some of this money (from the fund balance) and study the impacts.”
Legislator Laura Russo, R-Patterson, chairwoman of the Economic Development Committee, motioned to put $15,000 – not taken from the tourism’s advertising budget – into subcontingency to complete a countywide tourism impact study.
“Leave the tourism line alone,” she said. “We have the money – let’s put it toward a good use.”
Russo added that she doesn’t necessarily agree that the county should foot the bill for picking up trash in municipalities, noting that the Carmel DPW had to pick up after the recent Columbus Day parade – not the county.
Later in the week, the Budget Committee approved the $15,000 line item.
During that meeting, D’Angelo voiced support for studying the impacts of tourism.
“If the county is investing dollars to drive tourism, these towns are taking on the burden of the adverse effects of that tourism and we get all but one-ninth of 1 percent of the sales tax that comes in,” he said. “We’re relying on the town infrastructure, their garbage – basically cleaning up the mess.”
Cold Spring Mayor Kathleen Foley has been vocal about how overtourism is affecting the village. Despite what some may think, the mayor said overconsumption is not always best for business.
“It’s not just about how much sales happen in the stores,” she said during a recent interview. “We lose our main street on the weekend.”
While the Village of Cold Spring has about 2,000 residents, the number of visitors entering the village during the peak fall season is sometimes estimated to be quadruple that number. There are lines for restaurants that wrap around the block and sometimes the restaurants run out of food, which leaves visitors cranky. In addition, the village only has two public restroom facilities.
Foley said tourism has changed the village’s business model, with some merchants that are resident-relevant – such as wine shops, coffee shops, florists – and others that are visitor-viable.
“We don’t want to become Lake Placid,” she said, referring to a tourist destination that has been wrung out to dry. “Overtourism is a thing, and a place can be loved too much. Are we coming to that tipping point where we’ve been loved so much we become a place no one wants to come to?”
As a municipality, Foley said the village board’s duty isn’t just to think about the economy, but how public safety is affected when there are so many people in the village at once – and the cost is being pushed down to a local level in a way that people don’t realize.
She said Metro-North makes money on train tickets, and the county makes money in sales tax revenue – of which one-ninth of 1 percent is shared with the village, which amounted to about $50,000 last year. However, it’s the municipality that pays for water and sewer infrastructure that is being overused, overtime hours to provide public safety, and added garbage pickups.
“That’s a cost that comes out of our budget, and garbage cans are still overflowing,” said Foley. “The $50,000 from the county is really the least they can do. That sales tax is on our back.”
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