9/23/1991 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

SEP 2 3 1991 of July Parade or our Labor Day Parade. She further clarified that she could not think of any organization, be it sports, music, arts, hotels, that should be excluded. It is a matter of what they have to do in order to be eligible for tourist funds. Commissioner Scurlock stated another consideration is the best use of the dollars. Florida Statutes set out the criteria. Chairman Bird suggested our legal department could set the stage for discussion. Assistant County Attorney Will Collins advised that the statute basically sets up a tourist development council as an advisory council to make recommendations to the county governing body for the effective operations of special projects or for the uses of tourist development tax revenue and such other duties as the County Commission gives them. He listed the authorized uses of revenue as essentially four purposes: First, acquiring, constructing, extending, et Cetera, one or more publicly owned and operated convention centers, sports stadiums, sports arenas, coliseums, or auditoriums within the boundaries of the county or taxing district in which the tax is levied. Second, promote and advertise tourism in the State of Florida and nationally and internationally. ' Third, funding convention bureaus, tourist bureaus, tourist information centers, and news bureaus as county agencies or by contract with the chambers of commerce or similar associations in the county. (The'County Commission has made the decision not to create an internal department of tourism but has entered into a contract with the Chamber of Commerce to act as its official Tourist Bureau and has set out in that contract certain authorized uses of the revenue and certain unauthorized uses, to establish some priorities of the expenditures. Fourth, finance beach improvement, maintenance, renourishment, restoration and erosion control, including shoreline protection, enhancement, cleanup, or restoration of inland lakes and rivers to which there is public access. Attorney Collins noted that when the tourist tax was first passed there was a two-year program which had to be set out before it was put to referendum and at that time 85 percent of the revenues were projected to be used for county beach parks acquisition and 15 percent was for tourism promotion. Commissioner Scurlock asked for confirmation that the funds cannot be used to fund the activity itself but rather for advertising the event. Attorney Collins thought there is some play in the word "Promote" and the reasoning is that if you do not have some event going on to promote or to draw the people, then you are not going 2 M M M