ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Two big projects are getting support from the mayor to receive the majority of Orange County’s tourism development tax funds.
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County Mayor Jerry Demings sent a letter to county commissioners today with his proposal, which divides all $900 million that’s expected to be available.
Between the Orange County Convention Center and Camping World Stadium, the rest of the organizations would have to wait for what may be left over.
A local economist said these are tourism tax dollars, are volatile and you can’t spend what you don’t have. Therefore, it’s no surprise that some may not get what’s on their wish lists.
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Demings laid out a new proposal that scales back on the amount of funding that should go to several big projects. The memo comes one day after the county comptroller told commissioners to be conservative on spending the hotel tax funds.
He also recommended issuing no more than $900 million in new debt for new projects, saying, “many of us, and especially those entities seeking funding, had hoped the debt capacity would be much higher allowing us to meet all the current requests.”
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Demings wants to expand the convention center in two phases, as well as make certain upgrades to Camping World Stadium.
However, the roof Camping World Stadium was hoping for, as well as $145 million in upgrades the Dr. Phillips Center requested may have to wait.
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