Open shades on Visit Florida’s spending

How’s this for ironic? Florida’s lead agency for promoting travel to the Sunshine State insists on conducting business in the shadows.

As reporter Gray Rohrer recently reported, Visit Florida operates with minimal state oversight and hides crucial contract details fromthe public, even though it receives substantial public funding along with private contributions fromthe tourism industry.

This arrangement is an affront to taxpayers, who have a right— spelled out in state lawand the Florida Constitution— to know how their hard-earned dollars are being spent.

State lawmakers allocated $75million to Visit Florida in the current budget year, and the agency is in line to receive another $78 million in the budget year that begins July 1.

That’s more than the $75million lawmakers budgeted for maintenance and repairs at public schools. Yet no one would reasonably argue that the details of school construction funds be hidden fromthe public.

While state law requires private contributors to at least match the public’s investment in Visit Florida’s budget, most of the private funding comes in the form of advertising and promotional “value” from the industry, not cash. More than 90 percent of its operating budget comes from taxpayers.

Visit Florida’s secretive ways came into the spotlight last year when the agency refused to reveal the details of its contract with rapper Pitbull to promote the state through his concerts and social media accounts. Agency leaders said the contract barred any disclosure, and cited an overly broad exemption under the state’s openrecords law for “proprietary information.”

Visit Florida uses the same excuse to withhold details on contracts with other travel “ambassadors,” including an English soccer club and a race car team. The public has noway of knowing whether these dollars are well spent or wasted.

Visit Florida isnot subject to the government audits given other agencies that spend public money. Neither are the salaries of its employees publicly disclosed online as they are at government agencies.

Visit Florida used to receive some measure of oversight on its board of directors from two state legislators— a Senate and House member. But the board was downsized from53 to 31members in 2011, and two slots for legislators were eliminated. The current board is made up of tourism industry executives appointed by another public-private agency, Enterprise Florida.

Defenders of the status quo cite the state’s prowess in attracting tourists. A record 105 million people visited Florida last year. Lawmakers in both parties seem reluctant to mess with success. Yet as impressive as the numbers are, they shouldn’t be a license for Visit Florida to escape scrutiny in spending somany public dollars.

Consider that there are many factors, beyond promotional efforts, that play into how many people visit the Sunshine State, including the health of the economy in the U.S. and other countries, currency values and the opening of new tourist attractions in Florida.

And when the number of Brazilians visiting Florida last year dropped10 percent, analysts didn’t blame Visit Florida. They attributed the decrease to political and economic turmoil in Brazil.

Public scrutiny builds public confidence in government agencies. It invites outside input that leads to wiser spending and better decisions. It discourages corruption.

Lawmakers need to make sure that Visit Florida, and the taxpayers who support it, realize these benefits— and enjoy more sunshine.