Mayoral candidates disagree on key issues during debate
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and two challengers City Commissioner Sam Ings and Aretha Simons sparred on transportation, gentrification and the region’s low wages during a debate Tuesday evening.
The debate at the Orlando Science Center comes less than two weeks before early voting begins Oct. 28 and three weeks before Election Day Nov. 5.
Dyer, a 16-year incumbent, reiterated his support for a proposed 1-cent sales tax to fund transportation, as well as running SunRail to the airport and offering more frequent service. Dyer said about half of the sales tax is paid by visitors, and would create about $640 million in new revenue annually.
“The only way we won’t be successful is if we fall behind in our transportation infrastructure,” Dyer said.
That spurred disagreement between the three, with Ings and Simons hesitant on the added penny, which would bring the county tax to 7.5 cents, and instead suggested alternatives that would be charged to tourists.
“We’re a tourist city, so why not raise the tourist tax?” Simons asked, noting it’s normally used for venues.
Dyer said such an increase to the 6% surcharge on hotel stays and other accommodations would generate about $40 million annually, far less than would an added cent on the sales tax.
Ings also said he opposed the proposal by Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, noting that the city also needs to find more funding to address the region’s affordable housing crisis, and suggested revisiting a proposal to put a $2 surcharge on car rentals to fund transportation.
“I do feel the sense that an additional tax is too much,” Ings said.
The debate Tuesday was sponsored by the Orlando Sentinel, WUCF, The League of Women Voters of Orange County, the Central Florida Urban League and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Orlando.
Ings is also a longtime elected official, having represented District 6 spanning southwest Orlando neighborhoods and the tourism corridor since 2006. Prior to serving on the council, Ings had a 30-year career at the Orlando Police Department, retiring as a commander.
Simons is a U.S. Navy veteran, who served more than 20 years in the service, working both in technical roles and as a military police officer. She now is a consultant and grant writer, and filed to run for the seat in 2017.
Dyer and Simons were split on if the mayor – which sits on several powerful boards governing entities like the city-owned Orlando International Airport and the Central Florida Expressway Authority – should be restricted from collecting campaign contributions from contractors at those agencies.
Dyer, who has taken contributions from several such companies through a political committee, didn’t favor restrictions.
“If you started prohibiting raising money from anybody that does business with any of the boards the mayor sits on, there wouldn’t be too many people left to raise money from,” Dyer said.
Simons differed, contending the contributions are meant to influence.
“You get funds from citizens and people who believe in you,” she said.
Asked about gentrification in Parramore, Ings and Simons said it has swept through the west Orlando neighborhood already, where the population has declined. Now with Creative Village, and other projects down the pike, some there fear they’ll be priced out.
“Creative Village is a good thing…but the people in the surrounding area is where we have a problem,” Ings said.
Ings said there is a need for more housing in Holden Heights and that the neighborhood had been neglected from economic development.
Dyer defended his administration’s efforts there, noting that Creative Village has affordable housing components, including Amelia Court, which opened this summer.
“We’re certainly extremely cautionary about maintaining the culture and heritage of the neighborhood,” Dyer said.
With Metro Orlando’s wages the lowest of the 50 biggest cities nationwide, Simons said businesses who want to move here should pay employees more than $15 per hour. She also said the city should have paid its own workers that minimum wage a long time ago.
Ings said the raises shouldn’t be implemented in a three-year tiered system as approved by the city earlier this month, but immediately. He also called for increasing the living wage.
Dyer said the city needs to lure better paying jobs to the city, and also touted job training programs in place to help boost skills for residents to find work in higher-wage fields.
The same sponsors are hosting another debate Thursday at The Smith Center, 1723 Bruton Blvd., for the three candidates running for the District 6 City Council seat.