LOCAL VIEW:
Chapin: Tourism leaders can help community.
It’s encouraging to read that there may be movement in the use of the tourist resort tax (“hotel tax”) for community needs. A word of caution: Let’s not allow these discussions to turn into the usual circular horse trade involving marketing dollars and convention-center expansion. We’ve been to that rodeo before, and, yes, our local sports and arts venues have benefited. But just as we’ve seen enormous disruptions, nationally, in both political and business sectors, our community now faces similar disruptions.
A friend recently predicted that our region could become “Hurricane Central” as rising seas and increasingly intense storms ravage the Caribbean. An influx of newcomers, however welcome, could test our civic and economic institutions as never before. In Central Florida, we already face three big challenges: wages, housing and transportation. And unless we utilize every possible resource to get a handle on these defining issues, we risk losing the progressive reputation we’ve enjoyed in the past few decades.
The tourism industry has many talents and bright minds. We cannot afford to have our major employers missing in action. Let’s engage them in a wide-ranging conversation about our community’s future.
How could they help us? Let me count the ways.
Disney World, through the legislation that created Lake Buena Vista many years ago, has access to lower-tax municipal housing bonds. What if Disney were to create a national model for work-force housing on its vast properties?
Orange County resort taxes are up 6 percent and approach $300 million annually. It’s true that a lot of that is already committed, but a seventh cent raising $50 million could go some distance to meet transit needs. Oops, it’s also true that the current legislation doesn’t allow those revenues to be spent on transportation. But that could change; what are legislatures for?
Wages? That’s an easy one. But let’s dream on ... SeaWorld truly does educate its visitors on the topics of ocean creatures and conditions. How about providing that enlightenment in a special curriculum for Central Florida schoolchildren? Here’s a big idea: If the attractions would voluntarily add a mere 10 cents to each ticket, it could create a pool of $7 million-plus for arts across the region, making funding for our arts groups commensurate with their excellence (and maybe encourage more tourists?).
Hotelier Harris Rosen has changed lives with his college scholarships for low-income kids across our community. What could the tourism industry create in terms of training and development programs for advancement in the field, or tuition assistance for employees?
In anticipation of pushback from industry executives, let me be quick to say that I’ve never been a tourism basher. We’ve been fortunate indeed to have their creative talents, exciting job opportunities for young people, tax base and, yes, funding assistance for community projects over the years. We have the most successful theme parks and hotels in the world, and we love our tourism industry.
But tough times call for tough negotiations. Florida taxpayers and our own region have done a lot to make the tourism sector very successful. Now, facing new challenges, we need to ask tourism leaders to help make our community successful as well.