NOV 12 Hot Topics: Tourism Taxes
Diana Smith | Published on 10/15/2025
Nov. 12 Hot Topics Focuses on Tourism Development Tax Proposals
League of Women Voters of Orange County Lunch and Discussion Series (LAST one of 2025!)
The League of Women Voters of Orange County will host a Nov. 12 Hot Topics discussion — “Tourism Taxes: A Revenue Stream Worth Reimagining” — that focuses on how the county might fund future infrastructure projects with the Tourism Development Tax (TDT). Local elected and business leaders have outlined dueling proposals in recent months.
Doors open at 10:30 a.m. at the Winter Park Events Center for a buffet lunch. The discussion starts at 11:45 a.m. at 1050 W. Morse Blvd. in Winter Park and ends at 1 p.m. Tickets are $30 for League members, $37 non- members. Register at www.LWVOC.org/HotTopics
The moderator is LaToya Dennis, news director and managing editor of Central Florida Public Media. Panelists include Jane Healy, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former co-chair of the citizens advisory task force on the TDT; Frank Santos, CEO of Rosen Hotels & Resorts, and state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Democrat who
represents Central Florida voters.
The TDT is a 6 percent assessment on hotel and motel rooms and short-term vacation rentals that is paid by tourists. Created to develop and promote tourism, the tax is used to fund tourism-related projects and services. The tax also has been a source of argument for years in Orange County. Some leaders have wanted to divert some of the money for transportation or affordable housing projects, but the law currently limits its use. Orange County collects more TDT than any other Florida county, about $360 million last year. A large portion of the money, more than $100 million, went directly to Visit Orlando, a not-for-profit trade organization that encourages people to visit Orange County.
A recent audit by the Orange County comptroller was critical of how Visit Orlando has been spending some of the tax money. Currently there appears to be movement to change the law to raise the 6 percent tax or to give Visit Orlando less money. A majority of members of the citizens advisory task force had recommended a more flexible use of the TDT.
Among the issues to be discussed at Hot Topics:
--What needs to be changed in the law to allow counties more discretion in how to spend TDT, and what are the pros and cons?
--Should Visit Orlando be restructured so that the organization functions more like Visit Florida, a public- private partnership?
--What is the positive or negative side to raising the TDT for transportation projects? Does it also require changes to the law?
--What are other large cities in the United States doing with their versions of TDT?
--What about the proposed ballot proposal for a 1-cent or half-cent sales tax for transportation needs?
The panel discussion will be streamed live on the League’s Facebook page Facebook and an edited version will be available later on the League’s YouTube channel, League of Women Voters Orange County - YouTube.
Visionary sponsors: Phil and Jennifer Anderson. Silver sponsors: Lyn and David Berelsman and Voting Voices —Michele Levy, Charley Williams, Caroline Emmons-Schramm and Laurie and Richard Wack. A new Silver sponsor group, The Kindred Three: Lee Rambeau Kemp, Sue Foreman and Joan Erwin. Bronze sponsors: Alex and the Hon.
Cynthia Mackinnon.