The Cayuga County Legislature and the Auburn City Council should both support financial backing for a performing arts festival that is now just in the planning stages but has a real potential to boost area tourism.

Organizers of a theater festival asked county lawmakers this week to approve $25,000 to support a series of events that could draw 200,000 people a year to Auburn and Cayuga County. They plan to request that the city also chip in $25,000.

And while the plan seemed to be received favorably by members of the county's Ways and Means Committee, county legislator Francis Mitchell said private citizens, not government, should put up the financial backing.

But private citizens already have. Individuals and nonprofit agencies have already pledged $275,000.

Theater festival organizers say $325,000 is needed to move forward on a master plan that will study the feasibility of the project; how much it will cost to run; and what the budget will be for the first four years.

Organizers aren't looking to government to fund the whole festival. They just want some help getting started.

Local governments should look at the project as an investment. An annual local theater festival has the potential to fill area hotels, restaurants and shops, and the sales tax benefits of visitor spending will be only one of the payoffs.

Merry-Go-Round Playhouse Director Ed Sayles points out that the playhouse, alone, draws about 60,000 people each year.

A theater festival - envisioned to begin about 2010 - would utilize at least four performance venues and focus on attracting some of the millions of people who live within a five-hour drive of the Auburn area.

Requests for $25,000 from the county and the city are not at all unreasonable in light of the potential payoff, and we urge area lawmakers to support this vision.