ANNA MARIA – Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth hasn’t gained a lot of support from leadership in local barrier island cities for her idea to change how tourist development taxes are distributed in Manatee County.
Titsworth brought up the topic during a Coalition of Barrier Island Elected Officials meeting where she was joined by Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy, Longboat Key Mayor Ken Schneier and Longboat Key Town Manager Tom Harmer. She said that although vacation rentals bring in about 30% of the total Manatee County tourist development tax revenues, her city doesn’t see a lot of it returned.
“Tourist development funding is hard for Holmes Beach to qualify for,” she said, noting that the city has only seen about $100,000 of the millions of dollars earned come back to help fund city projects. Titsworth said she’s expecting about $30,000 from the tax this year for Grassy Point Preserve improvements.
The funds are assigned to projects by Manatee County commissioners with advice from the county’s Tourist Development Council. By state law, the funds can only be used for specified projects related to tourism. Titsworth said she’d like to see those funds available for infrastructure improvements or redistributed to local municipalities based on the percentage of the total funds earned by that city. She also said she’d prefer it if the funds could be distributed without the requirement of county commission approval.
In the current fiscal year, Titsworth requested funds for bicycle and sidewalk path improvements and reimbursement for seawall repairs necessary to prevent part of Marina Drive in the city’s commercial district from collapsing. While the project was approved by the members of the TDC, county commissioners voted it down, although they did approve the funds for Grassy Point Preserve. Some county commissioners stated that they didn’t see how the paths and seawall repairs tied into tourism-related spending while others stated that they wouldn’t approve the project because of an ongoing clash between city and county leaders over beach parking in residential neighborhoods. During the BIEO meeting, Titsworth said she doesn’t appreciate how some county leaders are “weaponizing” funding in an attempt to force city officials to meet their demands.
Though Murphy said he understands Titsworth’s predicament, he feels that his city has been getting its fair share of the tax funds. Rather than depend on tourist development tax funds for infrastructure repairs, he suggested making an effort to get a larger cut of sales tax revenue, which is currently disbursed based on population.
Harmer and Schneier agreed that they also don’t have an issue with the way the funding is currently distributed. Harmer said that their city’s tourist development tax dollars were primarily used for beach renourishment and maintenance. Unlike on Anna Maria Island, the small number of public beach accesses on Longboat Key means that beach renourishment and maintenance is funded by that city rather than through outside government funding.
