In Garner it's a no-inn situation.

• Position: Garner, North Carolina

In their rush to get on the tourism bandwagon, some North Carolina municipalities have put the cart before the horse.

Take Garner. The little town (population 16,000) five miles south of downtown Raleigh established a 3 percent hotel-occupancy tax in July of last year.

The way Dave Heinl, president of the N.C. Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus, looks at it, Garner's timing couldn't have been better: "There's no opposition likely from hotels, because there aren't any." But if any hotels or motels move in - hey - Garner's ready.

It all began in 1983, when Buncombe, Mecklenburg, Forsyth and Haywood counties imposed bed taxes on hotels to provide tourism-development funds. At first, counties in metropolitan areas such as High Point, Raleigh, Greensboro and Winston-Salem used the money to promote tourism, most often through convention and visitor bureaus. Then, some places farther off the beaten path...