PHOTO VIA ORANGE COUNTY GOVERNMENT FACEBOOK PAGE
Orange County commissioners approved a Tourist Development Tax spending plan of more than $780 million on Monday, cutting the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts’ share to $350 million from the $400 million Mayor Jerry Demings had recommended.
The vote followed about five hours of public testimony and debate and was 6-1, with Commissioner Kelly Semrad of Winter Park opposed and Commissioner Mayra Uribe moved to cut the Dr. Phillips Center’s allocation to keep county reserves above the recommended level. Dr. Phillips Center president and CEO Kathy Ramsberger confirmed the center can proceed with the lower amount.
The money comes from the county’s 6% tax on hotel and vacation rental stays. Florida law limits how it can be spent to tourism marketing, convention centers and tourist-attracting venues, not general needs like schools or road repairs.
The plan includes $75 million to renew the county’s Application Review Committee grant program and $52.5 million for a parking garage at Camping World Stadium. Two new grant programs, one for natural resource tourism infrastructure and one for ecotourism, would get $50 million each.
The University of Central Florida will get $46 million for a track facility and soccer stadium expansion. The citizen task force had not recommended funding for the UCF work, but Demings added it back.
The approved list also includes:
- $30 million to transform Forest Lake Golf Club in Ocoee
- $25 million for the I AM Children’s Museum in Winter Garden
- $20 million for the Eatonville Heritage Tourism District
- $12.5 million for Creative City’s Project Immerse Festival
- $3 million more for the county’s Arts and Culture Affairs program
The Dr. Phillips Center expansion will add 11 venues, for 20 in all, including a 750-seat theater, an 800-seat banquet space, a 4,000-capacity outdoor amphitheater and 1,150 parking spaces.
The Orange County Convention Center received no money this round. A last-minute push to add several hundred million dollars for another expansion failed, with Commissioner Mike Crabb the only supporter. Crabb argued in a letter that delays have cost the county more than $100 million in construction inflation.
Some elected officials, union leaders and tourism industry members had urged the county to pause. At least 14 of 78 speakers asked that funds go toward transportation. Demings said the Legislature is unlikely to expand permitted uses of the tax. “How big is big enough?” he said at the meeting.
Semrad raised concerns about the plan’s own projections, which show the county’s TDT reserves falling below the recommended $300 million threshold in coming years. Demings and staff said the projections are conservative because they assume 2 percent annual revenue growth.
Demings and Uribe are leaving office soon, and the mayoral election is November 3. Demings’ term ends December 7.
