The preliminary budget drawn up by the Florida House for
2020-21 again includes no money to fund Visit Florida, the state’s tourism-promotion
agency.
Visit Florida president Dana Young said she was aware that
House Speaker Jose Oliva does not support reauthorizing the agency, so she was
not surprised to see no money included for Visit Florida.
Young, a former member of the Florida House, said the Senate
and governor have both included $50 million for Visit Florida in their proposed
budgets.
“The budgeting process in the Florida legislature is a
complex process,” Young said at a press briefing at the Florida Huddle in
Jacksonville. “The first budget that is rolled out is kind of where that body
is at the time. However, the budget negotiations have not even begun between
the governor, the House and the Senate, and we’re very hopeful that in that
process, which will probably start in 3 to 4 weeks, that things will work out.”
Last year, the House also challenged the Visit Florida
budget, resulting in a cut in the annual appropriation from $76 million to $50
million for the fiscal year that began July 1, 2019. Young said that resulted
in a number of job cuts at Visit Florida, as well as an end to sponsorship programs
and grants to promote tourism.
She said 89% of the budget is now directly tied to
marketing.
In the past, Oliva has raised doubts about the efficiency of
state spending on tourism and has advocated that private tourism businesses and
local authorities bear the cost of tourism marketing.
Young said that legislation reauthorizing Visit Florida for
eight years recently passed unanimously in a second committee in the Senate,
which will send the bill to the full Senate for consideration. She said she had
no doubt it will be approved there.