State senators last week touted myriad investments sprinkled throughout the state’s first $40 billion budget, but slammed the door on $200,000 for visitor centers, disappointing lawmakers whose districts are heavily dependent on tourists flowing in from other states.

The Senate dismissed a push by Sen. Kathleen O’Connor-Ives to add $200,000 to the budget for visitor centers after she joined three colleagues in lamenting shuttered facilities and an apparent cold shoulder being given to the state’s third-largest economic sector, tourism.

While the amendment was defeated, Sen. Karen Spilka strongly defended the Senate’s commitment to tourism, an industry that she said generates over $1 billion in state and local taxes and over $20 billion in direct spending every year.

Spilka blamed the Baker administration for holding back half of a $6 million fiscal 2017 appropriation for regional tourism councils. The Senate included language in its fiscal 2018 budget directing the administration to allocate the full $6 million appropriation by September 2017, she said in a statement.

There are 11 centers, according to an aide to Housing and Economic Development Secretary Jay Ash, who said they are run by regional tourism councils and require funding from the state or the councils to pay for staff, upkeep and maintenance.

Sen. Julian Cyr of Truro said he’s been traveling the state in his new post as chairman of the Legislature’s Committee on Community Development and Small Business. He’s driven past closed visitor centers, he said, and there is a “big ‘closed’ sign on the blue highway sign welcoming people to Cape Cod.”

“What sort of message are we sending to people who are visiting here?” Cyr said in a statement, drawing no engagement from opponents of the amendment. “What kind of message are we sending our small businesses and entrepreneurs who are working really hard this time of year to gear up?”

Noting the state’s sluggish tax revenue growth, O’Connor-Ives said in a statement that the return on investment for every dollar invested in tourism is seven dollars.

Senators from Spencer, Millbury, Salem and Westfield also signed on in support of the measure, which failed on a voice vote before it was withdrawn.