Visit Orlando must operate by the numbers
Scott Maxwell’s column regarding the Tourist Development Tax squandering by Visit Orlando (“Visit Orlando needs reform,” Aug. 3) makes me wonder why we can’t insist on performance metrics tied to allocating this money so it’s not the same old game.
Let’s make the contribution a dollar-for-dollar match to private industry funds to assure they have skin in the game for advertising and it’s not a lopsided funding formula. Couldn’t the monies be allocated quarterly to match private funding? If that’s not feasible, then make the contribution the following year equal to the private-sector contribution this year. That would motivate them to self-regulate those bloated salaries and keep stronger controls on spending.
Without these low-wage workers there can be no tourist destinations, so it is a critical factor in having tourism. Advertising for more, more, more if the infrastructure can’t support it is ludicrous — it must go hand in hand. Starting a nonprofit that supports the workers of the tourism industry in the key areas they need — transportation, food supplements, housing, and child care — is needed to augment the lack of living wages. The county must define the “added burden” that the massive tourism industry puts on county-provided infrastructure for purposes of the tax.
We need to cut off all other county tax dollars allocated to tourism. The Tourist Development Tax brought in a record $358.2 million in 2024. Shoring up this industry that builds a poverty-level work force is not an investment, it is folly.
Debra Lupton Winter Park
Orange County leadership failed
As a “purple” voter who seeks fiscally responsible, socially moderate government, I feel that Orange County leadership failed to act on Visit Orlando issues.
Florida DOGE will use Phil Diamond’s audit as a road map to do what should have been done years ago.
Don’t cry now; you should have addressed the issues.
Kimberly Brien St. Cloud
Trump’s magical thinking won’t solve problems
President Donald Trump once said he did not support Americans testing for COVID-19 because, “If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any.”
That he continues using magical thinking was evident when he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because Trump didn’t like data that indicated our economy is weakening. The next head will either manipulate the data or simply not publish it when the facts don’t fit Trump’s narrative. But regardless the facts will remain.
He has significantly reduced the budget of the NOAA, impacting the country’s research into climate change. But ignoring it and attempting to halt, slow or find ways to survive it will not stop it from happening. He also has significantly reduced the National Weather Service, but that won’t stop floods, hurricanes or tornadoes from destroying communities. He has cut financial support for NIH’s biomedical research, but that won’t stop diseases like Alzheimer’s or cancer from occurring. Magical thinking is easy, but it does not solve any problems.
Penny Storm Titusville
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