Bay Area leaders weigh in as Florida House debates reworking tourism tax laws

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24-04-2025

The Brief
The Florida House is debating a bill that would change tourism tax laws.
The bill would get rid of the Tourism Development Tax, or the tax on hotel rooms, in favor of lowering property taxes.
Local leaders say doing this will leave millions in revenue on the table.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A bill that's just starting to make its way through the Florida House is ruffling some feathers, specifically within the tourism industry.
House Bill 1221, sponsored by Rep. Monique Miller (R-Palm Bay) proposes no longer allowing the Tourism Development Tax, also known as the tax on hotel rooms, to be used for tourism purposes. Instead, it argues for lowering property taxes through tax refunds.
What they're saying
"Tourists flock here to spend their money," Miller told the House State Affairs Committee Tuesday. "This bill gives local governments more control over these taxes and the power to use tax revenues to make Florida more affordable for its residents," Miller said. "People are losing their homes. We have to bring them relief. This is a way to bring them immediate relief."
Miller said the bill would also give local governments the power to eliminate certain taxes they don't consider valuable and create new ones.
"We are taking all of these local taxes and giving the control to the county commission to get rid of any of those taxes. They're not bringing demonstrable value to the community, and by getting rid of those, it gives you the option to go out and put in place the ones that will be of value to your community with local option taxes," Miller said.
The other side
Charlie Justice, CEO of the Tampa Bay Beaches Chamber of Commerce and a former Pinellas County Commissioner, said it was good marketing that brought visitors back to the area after last year's hurricanes and helped businesses recover.
"People needed to be reminded because they get this image that the entire area shut down or closed or whatever," Justice said. "We needed to remind folks that we had a lot of property still open. We had a lot of hotels open."
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Justice said that while everyone wants property tax relief, this would hurt more than it would help.
"This would not be a reduction, but a complete gutting of a funding mechanism that markets our destination, that primes the pump for one of our most important industries in Tampa Bay and in Florida," Justice said. "Kind of the old saying about the juice is not worth the squeeze, the trade-off is just not worth it here."
Big picture view
Last year, 15 million people visited Pinellas County, generating about $100 million in hotel tax revenue, according to Justice.
The hotel tax goes towards marketing the area, funding beach renourishment projects and improving local attractions.
"How can you assure us that, if we take that money, if counties take that money, they are now required to take that money that was collected the prior year and apply it towards property taxes?" Rep. Michael Caruso (R-Palm Beach) asked Miller on Tuesday. "That the counties won't just come along, raise their millage, and we end up with the same. Higher millage, higher taxes offset by that amount, and it's a net-zero."
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"Those projects are going to continue on anyway, and it's the property's taxpayers who are going to end up paying for it instead of the tourists," Caruso continued.
Miller said she can't guarantee that local governments won't do this, but she said they have to hold them accountable.
"I also think that our beach renourishment is going to be severely impacted," Rep. Lindsay Cross (D-St. Petersburg) said. "There are huge price tags of some of these projects."
"30 or 40 million dollars, and these TDT taxes are one of the only ways that local governments can make up that difference when we're looking at support from the state and the federal government, which, frankly, hasn't been doing its part in helping to re-nourish these beaches, which are really our number one tourism draw here to the state of Florida," Cross said.
Dig deeper
Visit Tampa Bay President and CEO Santiago Corrada said losing that money could lead to fewer tourists, and have a trickle-down effect on the more than 61,000 families in Hillsborough County who rely on the tourism industry.
In Pinellas, Justice said the tourism industry employs 100,000 families.
"This is an assault on people's livelihoods, because if traffic stops, if demand drops, people get laid off," Justice said. "Businesses close."
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Corrada said the revenue from the Tourism Development Tax varies for all of Florida's counties, so the bill wouldn't save Floridians the same amount across the board.
"If we're talking about property tax relief, we've done the math here. With what we collect, we're probably looking at about $20 in property tax relief per household in Hillsborough County," Corrada said.
According to Corrada, 28 million people visited Hillsborough County in 2024. They spent $9.4 billion, which contributed more than $683 million in state and local taxes.
"If we want to risk all of that over 20 bucks in property tax savings, you know what? I beg to differ. I think it's a huge risk," Corrada said. "It would defund tourism marketing and promotions. We invest those dollars in bringing big events to town. If we're not around, who's bidding on a Shriner's Convention? Who's bidding a Women's Final Four?"
"You're going to kill the goose that lays the golden egg for Florida," Corrada said.
Justice said in Pinellas, tourists also pay about a third of the sales tax in Pinellas, which is money that goes into infrastructure projects.
State lawmakers expressed opinions on both sides of the bill Tuesday.
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"I think there are going to be a lot of negative unintended consequences of this bill," Cross said. "You mentioned that tourism is one of our number one industries here in the state of Florida, and it is important to continue to market that to people outside of our state."
"What we need to do right now is keep people in their homes, and I'm happy to champion this with you," said Rep. Fabián Basabe (R-Miami Beach).
Miller said it would save about $1.5 billion.
"That's $68.78 per every man, woman, and child in the state," Vice Chair James Mooney Jr. said. "That is not going to be magnificently successful."
What's next
Several tourism-related groups also spoke at the meeting, including the Florida Association of Counties, the Florida Shore and Beach Preservation Association and the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. They were all against the bill.
The House State Affairs Committee did approve moving the bill forward after a lengthy discussion.
"I can tell you the residents in my district are going to love this bill above any bill that we pass this year," said Rep. Linda Chaney (R-St. Pete Beach). "One of the number one complaints, or number one requests from the residents, is the cost of living and property tax is a big element of that."
The Florida House and Senate must pass the bill before the session ends in May for it to reach the governor's desk and be signed into law.
The Source
FOX 13's Kailey Tracy collected the information in this story.
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