SunRail bills come due. If hotel tax doesn’t pay, you will | Commentary
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Right now, cities and counties throughout Central Florida are scrambling to come up with tens of millions of dollars to cover the cost of SunRail.
So I have a proposal: Instead of digging into your pockets or general tax coffers, local leaders should follow the lead of other tourist towns by using hotel taxes to fund the costs.
Right now, Orange County takes in more hotel taxes than it can sensibly spend — more than $330 million a year that county leaders keep throwing at Visit Orlando and never-ending expansions to the convention center.
If leaders redirected just a fraction of that money to SunRail — probably no more than 20% — cities and counties could cover their costs.
This idea makes sense for a bunch of reasons:
1) Local residents are taxed enough. We needn’t raise sales taxes when there are existing revenues available.
2) SunRail already serves tourists. Plus, the next plan is to expand service to the airport. It makes sense to spend tourist taxes on projects with such a clear tourism nexus.
3) We need to fund rail a heckuva lot more than we need another million square feet at the convention center.
4) It’s way past time to use tourist taxes in more ways that benefit this community.
Other tourist towns already get this. In Las Vegas — Orlando’s No. 1 competitor — hotel taxes pay for schools, parks and more.
What’s more, Las Vegas’ visitors bureau (their version of Visit Orlando) actually runs that region’s rail system. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority purchased the Las Vegas Monorail in 2020 and has run the much shorter system ever since.
When I asked why, a spokeswoman for the Vegas convention authority said rail helps move tourists around town and reduces congestion for everyone. Bingo.
I floated the idea of using hotel taxes in Central Florida to cover the cost of SunRail six years ago. Why? Because I knew the taxman was coming. And I thought local residents were taxed enough.
Back then, some local leaders — including Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and then-county mayor Teresa Jacobs — said they thought that idea or some variation of it made sense. Dyer suggested an additional penny in hotel taxes that I had not. But there was general interest in looking at hotel taxes.
I was even foolish enough to pen an unusually optimistic column back in 2018 with the headline: “Hotel taxes on police, transit? Finally, we may say yes!”
Hotel taxes on police, transit? Finally, we may say yes!
What a dupe I was.
After that, the tourism lobby got its claws into all the local politicians and made them promise to keep hoarding the money for the industry’s own pet projects — including yet another expansion of the mammoth convention center that is rarely fully occupied and usually runs a deficit.
In the 2018 county mayor’s race, I asked all three candidates if any of them would aggressively push to diversify the use of hotel taxes for things like transit and public safety. None said yes.
Mayoral hopefuls talk taxes, guns, wages, rail and biggering the convention center (again)
Most local politicians, especially state legislators, instead tout the tourism industry’s talking points — that tourism taxes should only be spent to promote more tourism. Other tourist towns disagree.
If you care about this issue, here’s a helpful rule of thumb to consider when choosing candidates this election season: Most candidates endorsed by any kind of tourism or hotel association have vowed to carry the industry’s water.
If you doubt that or want to test my theory, just ask any candidate a simple question: Will you push to spend hotel taxes on transit?
If they say yes, you have your answer.
If they give you any other kind of mealy-mouthed, gobbledygook response or excuse, well, you probably have your answer as well.
Would it take work to start spending hotel taxes on transit? Absolutely. Right now, state laws are very restrictive — at the request of tourism lobbyists. That’s why, if you care about this issue, you need to start electing state legislators, county commissioners and city council members who promise they’ll work to change the laws.
Some will tell you they can’t do it quickly. That’s why some of us suggested doing this six years ago. There are always excuses.
Some Central Florida governments feel ‘sticker shock’ at SunRail’s future costs
The costs that local governments are about to start bearing for SunRail, once the Florida Department of Transportation shifts operational costs to them next year, range from around $300,000 for Maitland to $18 million for Orlando.
All told, we’re looking at around $65 million a year for all the partners in Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties.
That may sound like a lot. But it’s literally a fraction of what Orange County alone pulls in from hotel taxes each year — more than $330 million. All four counties collect hotel taxes.
So the question is: Do you want to pay for transit or another wing at the convention center? Budgets are always about choices.
Some folks knock rail in general, screaming: BUT IT LOSES MONEY! I often ask those people how much money they think roads like Orange Avenue and State Road 50 earn. Not one darn dime.
Also, rail does something concrete doesn’t: It gets cars off the road.
The Vegas visitors bureau says its monorail carries nearly 5 million people every year, including 67,000 for every trade show, reducing the number of taxi trips by 22,334 per show.
We can’t pave our way out of this region’s congestion problems. And we can’t tax our way out of it either. Nor is there a need to when existing resources are available. If local leaders will only try.
