Manatee County’s Tourist Development Council has again delayed a decision on whether cities can tap tourist tax revenue for infrastructure, including flood abatement, and the issue will not return until next year at the earliest.

The council, an advisory board to the Board of County Commissioners, is not expected to revisit the question until after the holidays. County commissioners are not bound by that timeline, however, and could act without a council recommendation.

Elliott Falcione, executive director of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, asked council Chair Amanda Ballard at an Oct. 12 meeting to bring the matter back after the holidays. Ballard is seeking reelection to the County Commission in the November election, and her council chairmanship depends on winning.

The tourist development tax is projected to bring in about $38 million this year. Historically, the money has gone mostly to tourism marketing and advertising, beach renourishment, and tourist-related event promotions, under Falcione’s recommendations and the direction of county commissioners.

The debate began in August, when council member Dan Diggins told the board that Florida law allows tourist tax dollars to be spent on infrastructure. Diggins, a Holmes Beach city commissioner who is running for mayor of that Anna Maria Island city, asked the county to cover half of the $689,000 cost of installing 92 tide valves to improve street drainage in Holmes Beach. He said good drainage improves the visitor experience. He added that Falcione sought a legal opinion from the county attorney’s office before the meeting, and that the office concluded the use is permitted.

Ballard said at the October meeting that the question is a policy matter for both the council and the commissioners, not just a legal one. Once the county opens the door, she said, infrastructure requests will pour in, and she predicted “with almost certainty” that 40 percent of tourism tax dollars would go to such projects for the foreseeable future.

State law sets the limits. At least 40 percent of tourist tax revenue must go to promoting and advertising tourism. That leaves up to 60 percent for other purposes, but nearly 20 percent is already committed to beach renourishment in Manatee County, so roughly 40 percent is actually available. Infrastructure spending requires a two-thirds vote of the County Commission. Tourist tax revenue can cover no more than 70 percent of a project’s cost, and each project requires an independent study paid for by the council.

Falcione acknowledged the legality of the spending but urged caution about piecemeal decisions. He said the county should avoid a “fractured program” in which one city gets a study while neighboring cities are overlooked.

The push for broader use of the money also has support inside county government. The county’s Government Efficiency Liaison Committee recommended in July that the county could operate more economically by drawing on tourist tax revenue for a wider range of projects. Whether shifting costs from one pool of public money to another amounts to efficiency, or simply moves the bill, is a question the council has yet to answer.

Bradenton, Palmetto, Anna Maria, Holmes Beach, and Bradenton Beach, along with unincorporated areas of the county, are all eligible to apply for the funds.

Follow the St. Pete-Clearwater Sun on Facebook, Google, & X

St. Pete-Clearwater Sun: local St. Pete-Clearwater & Tampa Bay, FL news at PIE-Sun.com