The colorful sign outside the state Capitol for Palm Beach County Days said “Love the Palm Beaches,” a promotion for one of Florida’s most popular and best-known tourist destinations.
The Legislature sure has a strange way of showing its love.
One of the most radical ideas this session is to kill the tourism goose in Florida, by diverting tourist tax money from tourism-related projects to property tax relief.
Tourists who come to Florida pay a “bed tax,” most often levied by hotels, motels and vacation rental properties. Statewide, it brings in about $1.5 billion a year.
The fact that pro-business Republicans are willing to alienate influential tourism groups such as hotel and restaurant owners shows the high level of anxiety over property taxes.
Mike Stocker/Sun Sentinel
Steve Bousquet, Sun Sentinel columnist, has reported from throughout Florida and New England.
“People are losing their homes,” said first-term Rep. Monique Miller, R-Palm Bay, sponsor of the measure (HB 1221), which passed the full House Friday. “We have to bring them relief.”
Counties would still levy the tourist tax (6% in Palm Beach, Broward, Orange and Osceola), but under the bill, county commissions would have to spend 75% of the revenue to reduce property taxes by 2027.
In Broward, tourist tax money is spent on marketing, promotion, convention center repairs and maintenance, beach renourishment and related projects such as upgrading the Sunrise hockey arena where the Florida Panthers play.
The tax generates more than $120 million a year in Broward alone.
Explaining his no vote, Rep. Daryl Campbell, D-Fort Lauderdale, said the tourist tax is a proven job-creator that stimulates the local economy.
“These funds are targeted tax revenues collected from visitors who stay in our hotels and eat at our restaurants, reinvested right back into the community that drew those visitors,” Campbell said.
If this bill passes, as most House Republicans hope, it could be devastating in areas of the state where tourism is an economic pillar, such as Palm Beach and Broward counties.
Tourism is also big business in small counties such as Nassau (Amelia Island) on the northeast coast and Walton in the Panhandle, with its famous beaches in Rosemary Beach, Seaside and Sandestin.
But even in tourist-friendly Tampa Bay, Republican Rep. Linda Chaney of St. Pete Beach thinks the tax plan is a great idea.
“We have all these tourists and they’re using up all of our infrastructure,” she said. “We’re not getting anything back for it.”
Another of the tax plan’s supporters was Rep. Fabian Basabe, R-Miami Beach, who obviously represents a heavily tourist-dependent city. He rejects the notion that without promotion, tourists will stop coming.
Even with all the bad press about violent Spring Break disturbances, Basabe said, “You can’t keep the tourists away.”
When the bill hit the House floor Friday, some Republicans were aghast at the idea, but most still voted for it and it passed, 62-45, with Democrats voting no.
In Broward and Palm Beach counties, every legislator in both parties voted against the bill, with two exceptions.
flhouse.gov
Friday’s House roll call vote on HB 1221, a bill that would drastically reduce the use of “bed tax” money to promote tourism in Florida.
The official record shows that Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman of Highland Beach voted yes, as did Republican Hillary Cassel of Dania Beach. Both likely will have lots of explaining to do to their tourist development councils and hotel and motel associations.
Other Republicans voted no, such as Rep. Mike Caruso of Delray Beach and Chip LaMarca of Lighthouse Point. So did several Orlando-area Republicans.
So too did Rep. Jim Mooney, R-Key West, whose economy is highly dependent on tourism.
He did a little math. If the tourist tax generates $1.5 billion in a year, he said, the property tax savings amounts to $68.78 per person, which he suggested was so puny that most homeowners won’t even notice it.
“That is not going to be magnificently successful,” Mooney said. “The reality is, this state is built on tourism.”
The goose-killing tax plan now heads over to the Senate, where it likely won’t be so well-received.
“It’s the dumbest idea I ever heard,” said Sen. Ed Hooper, R-Palm Harbor, the top budget-writer in the Senate. “Last I looked, tourism was our No. 1 industry.”
Steve Bousquet is Sun Sentinel Opinion Editor. Contact him at (850) 567-2240 or sbousquet@sunsentinel.com.