By Marvin G. Cortner

The Osceola County Commission Monday approved $200,000 in tourist development tax funding for the Osceola Center for the Arts.

The money will be used for operating expenses, Atlee Mercer, president of the center’s board of directors, told commissioners.

The county in the past funded the center by a line item in the general fund budget, but it was not included in the current budget, prompting center officials to request money from the tourist tax fund.

The center last year received $100,000 in tourist tax money but that money was solely for advertising and promotion. The county in 2006 earmarked $2 million in tourist tax revenue to fund much of the cost of the center’s new studio and rehearsal hall and the renovation of the main building, as well as other improvements, including landscaping and audio equipment.

Ed Moore, center executive director, told commissioners that funding the center was both a “quality of life issue” for local residents as well as a way to bring additional tourists to the county and possibly have them stay at local hotels or motels and eat at local restaurants.

Moore also told commissioners that the center has a long-range plan to establish a foundation – using money from the sale of 1.7 acres it owns along U.S. Highway 192 to the state for road right of way – so that it has a regular source of income and can wean itself from the county subsidy.

Moore said 30 percent of the center’s revenue comes from program fees – including summer classes for youth – and about 40 percent from the county. Among major expenses in the center’s approximately $700,000 budget, Moore said, are $30,000 for electricity, $25,000 for insurance and $210,000 for staff.

Commissioners agreed that the center’s activities achieved the goal of the tourist tax fund by promoting overnight stays in the county but some commissioners were worried that there are other unbudgeted demands on the tourist tax fund already, such as the proposed relocation of the Veterans Tribute and Museum, for example.

Commissioner Brandon Arrington, who voted against the funding, said the County Commission should stick to a budget and is not being financially responsible if it doesn’t, especially with the drop in tourist tax revenue so far this year (6.7 percent less for the first quarter of the 2009-10 fiscal year compared to the prior year first quarter, according to the Osceola County tax collector’s office).

Initially, consideration of the funding for the arts center was pulled from the meeting agenda but at the last minute was returned.

Tourist tax revenue is generated by a 6-percent tax on overnight stays in the county of less than 180 days. Money from the so-called lodging tax funds the Kissimmee Convention and Visitors Bureau and its various activities, event promotion for county organizations through grants and debt service on sports and other public facilities, among other uses.

The center is at 2411 E. U.S. Highway 192 between Kissimmee and St. Cloud.