With Orange County mayor’s new memo, tourist-tax plan appears set
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Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings has blessed a plan to cut tourist tax revenues for the Visit Orlando marketing agency in an 11th-hour memo, completing a consensus as county commissioners head into a decision-making session today.
With Demings’ direction clear in his Monday memo, the commissioners aren’t likely to clash much in the session.
They’re mostly on the same page.
The commissioners’ discussions Monday and on Jan. 16 were recorded and noticed to the public, as required by law. Commissioner Emily Bonilla arranged the broadcast of Monday’s two-hour session on her Facebook page.
In their conference-room meetings, commissioners reached consensus on:
Cutting Visit Orlando’s share of tourist-tax revenue from 30% to 25%. The trim will give the not-for-profit marketing organization about $88 million to spend in 2024, about $17.5 million less than last year, according to Comptroller Phil Diamond’s revenue projections.
Asking the comptroller to audit Visit Orlando travel expenses, which tripled from $2.4 million in 2021 to $7.5 million in 2022, according to a spreadsheet of Visit Orlando’s tax returns from 2015 through 2022. Demings said in his memo to the board that an audit would be “prudent.”
Requiring that Visit Orlando add a commissioner as a voting member to its executive board. Demings suggested the role should be filled by the commissioner representing the district with the highest total of hotel property values. That would be Commissioner Nicole Wilson, whose west Orange district includes Disney hotel properties.
Providing tourist-tax funding for $400 million in proposed upgrades at Camping World Stadium, including rebuilding the upper deck terrace and adding a 100,000-square-foot fieldhouse to the Orlando-owned stadium campus.
Reallocating money from Visit Orlando’s cut to the Application Review Committee (ARC), which considers capital funding requests for arts and cultural venues. ARC has previously contributed funding for construction of Harriett’s Orlando Ballet Centre Auditorium and the renovation of the Orlando Philharmonic Plaza Live venue.
The money for all the projects comes from overnight visitors who pay the Tourist Development Tax or TDT, a 6% county surcharge on the cost of a hotel room, a home-sharing rental like Airbnb and other short-term lodgings.
The revenues, which hit record levels in both 2022 and 2023, can swing wildly as 2020 showed.
Amid COVID-19, when travel was restricted and theme parks closed, revenues crashed to record lows.
In October, the board agreed to spend:
$560 million for another Orange County Convention Center expansion. The project includes a connecting, covered concourse between the North and South Buildings, 60,000-square-feet of meeting space and an 80,000-square-foot ballroom.
$90 million over 10 years from excess TDT revenues for a sports tower on the University of Central Florida FBC Mortgage Stadium. The tower will include suites, premium seating, and offices, and provide shade for parts of the stadium.
About $67.5 million over the next five years on Orange County Arts & Cultural Affairs, an increase of about $22.5 million over the previous spending plan. The government office contracts with United Arts of Central Florida to administer funding programs.
“I am encouraged that we all continue to work towards a consensus regarding our path forward,” Demings said in his memo, which noted contributions of the citizens panel he created to review funding applications for large shares of TDT revenue.
