Florida's travel marketing organization, Visit Florida, was
dealt a setback on Tuesday when a Florida House committee voted in favor of a
bill that would slash its budget by 67%.
In defiance of Florida Gov. Rick Scott, an ardent defender
of Visit Florida, the House Appropriations Committee voted 18-12 for a bill, HB 7005, that would cut Visit Florida's budget to $25 million.
The current bill is an amended version of one that another
House committee passed last week, which would end all
state funding for Visit Florida.
Visit Florida's supporters were not satisfied with the
amendment. Gov. Scott's office responded by saying the 67% cut would ultimately
kill jobs.
"If we cut the budget by 67%, our state will lose
visitors and our families will lose jobs," he tweeted.
Florida House speaker Richard Corcoran on Monday proposed
the changes to the bill, which call for limits on staff salaries and staff
travel, and more transparency for operations and contracts.
Defending the limit, Corcoran said on Twitter that Visit
Florida's budget had "shot up by 169% since 2009, from $29 million to $78
million." He also said the average state tourism marketing budget is $20
million.
Visit Florida's defenders have responded by touting the
organization's success: its visitor numbers have jumped to over 100 million,
the highest in the nation, from around 80 million six years ago.
Speaking on the House floor on Tuesday, Rep. Paul Renner
(R-Palm Coast), the bill's sponsor, said the new regulations would mean "no
more Pitbull contracts in secret," alluding to the uproar caused last year
when it was revealed that Visit Florida had paid the rapper Pitbull $1 million
to promote the state. The ensuing scandal led to the resignation of Visit
Florida's CEO earlier this year.
"What we're doing with the $25 million is putting them
back where they belong," Renner said. "We're putting them on a leash --
a short leash -- and provided that they show measurable progress and success
with the new accountability measures that we put in place with this bill, then
there is certainly an opportunity down the road for them to ask for more."
No date has been set, but the bill's next step would be to
pass a full House vote during the next legislative session, which begins in
March, and from there to be approved by the Florida Senate.