ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida lawmakers could slash the amount of funding Visit Orlando is required to receive yearly from Orange County’s Tourist Development Tax dollars. It could also give Orange County more freedom on how they spend the remaining money.
“It limits the tourist development tax revenue that has to be spent to promote and advertise tourism to $50 million before revenues can be used for public facilities,” said Finance and Tax Committee chair Sen. Bryan Avila. Senate leaders formally introduced their yearly tax relief package in committee Tuesday.
This year’s bill includes proposed new guidelines on how counties can use tourist development tax dollars.
Visit Orlando depends on tax revenue to market the area, from Orlando’s many theme parks and venues to restaurants and small businesses.
In 2023, Visit Orlando received roughly a third of what Orange County collected from taxes on hotel stays and short-term rentals-- about $107 million out of the roughly $360 million.
“It’s my opinion that $100 million in public money for Visit Orlando every year is excessive, and it’s kind of corporate welfare,” said state Senator Carlos Smith, who has pushed for giving Orange County more freedom on how they can use the money.
The proposed bill caps required funding for “promoting and advertising tourism” at $50 million before TDT can be spent for other uses. The bill would also allow the TDT fund to be used for “public facilities,” including transportation.
“Namely, to connect the SunRail train to the Orlando airport and potentially expand the Lynx bus system countywide with TDT revenue,” Smith said.
Smith says Orange County is currently prohibited from spending TDT funds on transit if it doesn’t spend at least 40% of its overall revenue on Visit Orlando. Based on 2023′s revenue, Orange County would have had to spend $140 million on Visit Orlando in order to fund other projects.
Smith says if this passes, his hope is that Visit Orlando will receive the required $50 million and another $50 million will go toward SunRail.
Smith says he’s confident the proposal will pass because the guidelines originally proposed by Smith, who is a Democrat, made it into a tax package written by the Republican supermajority.
“I think it’s because of the conservative mindset right now which is very DOGE,” Smith said “You know the argument I made is that we engage in a lot of wasteful spending of public money via Visit Orlando, and part of the reason why is the state law is so restrictive in what Orange County is allowed to use hotel taxes for.”
Eyewitness News reached out to Visit Orlando but did not hear back by time of publish.
Orange County Government responded to our inquiry stating, “We typically don’t speculate about bills that are working their way through the legislature and have not yet become law.”
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