DADE CITY — A three-year plan to increase Pasco County's tourism tax is being undermined by the county's decision to dedicate more of its current bed tax proceeds for administrative expenses.
That is the sentiment of the advisory Tourist Development Council, which last week recommended a three-year tourism plan for the county, but declined to bless a new formula that calls for 40 percent of the tax proceeds to cover salaries and ancillary costs.
"What if we say no?'' asked New Port Richey City Council member Chopper Davis.
The angst surrounded the tourism budget for the coming year, which earmarked more than $410,000 — or 40 percent of the yearly proceeds from the 2 percent tax on overnight accommodations — to cover salaries, benefits, indirect costs and office operations. That is up from the current formula setting aside 26 percent for administrative overhead.
The biggest jump comes from how the county bills for staff time of county employees outside the tourism office. Previously, the county budgeted $40,000 annually for the work done by the county attorney, management and budget, strategic planning and other offices. An internal study, using 2014 data, now puts that figure at $133,000.
"We need to spend that $100,000 on media buys … to promote the county,'' said Pat Ciaccio, general manager of the Saddlebrook Resort and the most outspoken critic of the fiscal change.
"We're asking 39 businesses to pay this. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of businesses that benefit from the bed tax, yet 39 businesses actually contribute to this. … To attack the TDC to the tune of $100,000 is absolutely unfair.''
The debate overshadowed the tourism development plan through 2020, which proposes increasing the tourist tax each of the next three years until it reaches 5 percent in the 2019-20 fiscal year. If approved by the County Commission, it would provide nearly $3 million annually in tourist tax revenue, including $2.3 million for marketing, promotions and for construction of future capital projects.
Currently, the proposed tourism projects include $8.5 million for an indoor sports facility at Wiregrass Ranch, $1 million for gateway signs welcoming visitors to the county, $1.25 million for a nature center targeting bicyclists and pedestrians using county trails and $250,000 for a cyclist-friendly visitor center. Voters approved the tourist tax in 1990, but the county has yet to make a large-scale capital investment outside of unbudgeted expenses at SunWest Park and for turf lacrosse fields at the county district park in Wesley Chapel.
The TDC last broached the idea of a higher tourist tax in spring 2015 during a workshop meeting with county commissioners. It marked the fourth time in six years that the commission had been asked to raise the tax rate and, as happened previously, it was met with a cold shoulder by a majority of the board.
One of the traditional opponents of a higher tourism tax is the 800-room Saddlebrook Resort, a position Ciaccio repeated last week to the TDC. Ciaccio acknowledged the tax rate probably should be higher, but said, "We're opposed to raising the bed tax because we can't figure out how to spend the (current) bed tax.''
Allocating more for overhead, Ciaccio argued, mirrored the failed 2015 legislative efforts in Tallahassee to earmark tourism money for law enforcement and other purposes. The cash grab from the tourism till is a statewide issue, he said.
"If we don't stop it, the bed tax will erode away.''
The County Commission will be asked to consider the three-year tourism development plan in the coming months.