Support there, but not like this

Home

Opinions

Editorial

Other Sun Publications

FREE DELIVERY!
Get Free Delivery! Request your Osceola News Gazette Today.

Login Form

2013 Osceola Health

2013 Sexual Predator Sexual Offender List sexualpredatorcover13

Windows on the Classroom March 2013

School Calendar
2012-2013

View our other Special Sections

Support there, but not like this

Opinions

Saturday, 20 February 2010 01:58

While we believe supporting the Osceola Center for the Arts with public money improves our quality of life, we must take issue with the latest round of funding for the center.
The Osceola County Commission Monday on a 4-1 vote approved $200,000 in tourist development tax money for the center for operating expenses. Previously, the county funded the center out of the general fund but that money was cut out of the budget.
The center last year received $100,000 in a tourist tax grant for advertising and promoting specific events. Plus, the county in 2006 earmarked $2 million in tourist tax revenue to fund much of the center’s new studio and rehearsal hall.
The problem now? Improving the “quality of life” for local residents – as center representatives argued – is not a proper use of tourist tax money, which must be used to put tourist heads in local beds. Also, justifying the funding because visitors might “eat at local restaurants” and thereby “generate sales taxes” is spurious as well.
Absent from the discussion was an estimate on how many overnight stays the additional funding for the center would generate – even a ballpark figure would have been useful. Commissioners made a half-hearted effort to get more information but it wasn’t forthcoming, and four commissioners in the end voted for the funding.
Only Commissioner Brandon Arrington showed some guts, saying that while he supports the arts, he couldn’t support the funding because it had not been budgeted.
We agree that the center can promote tourism but where was the documentation usually required for this kind of funding and why didn’t commissioners demand it.
Even the county’s own wording on the resolution approving the funding is problematic: It is in the “best interest of the citizens of Osceola County for the County to assist organizations which provide programs that promote arts, culture, and education of the citizens and tourists … and foster interest and participation in the arts by providing affordable and accessible programs and facilities that encourage artistic expression in the diverse community it serves.”
Again, tourist tax money cannot be used for our “citizens,” no matter how you cut it.