MANATEE COUNTY – County commissioners were set to vote on whether to increase the county’s tourist tax, also known as the bed tax, from 5% to 6% at their April 23 meeting, but the item was removed from the agenda due to a recent change in state law.
The Manatee County Tourist Development Council (TDC) unanimously recommended that the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) increase the tax at its April 15 meeting, but neither body was aware of 2023 legislation that gave voters the power to levy an increase in the tax.
“So, what happened was we met the revenue criteria for calendar year 2023” to increase the tax, Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director (CVB) and TDC member Elliott Falcione said. “The short-term rental tax has to generate $30 million and we generated $30,091,000, making us eligible to increase the tax from 5% to 6%, which is the maximum allowed in Florida.”
Falcione said after meeting the criteria, a request was sent through the county’s Office of Financial Management to the Florida Department of Revenue, which issued a letter certifying that the county had met the required criteria. The county attorney’s office then drew up a new ordinance to reflect the increase to 6%.
“On the Friday before the Tuesday, April 23 BCC meeting, the Department of Revenue notified the county that the Florida statute on tourism changed in 2023,” Falcione said. “It now requires any additional bed tax levy to go through a referendum process and can no longer be voted on by the BCC. It took the vote out of the hands of the BCC and now requires the residents to make the decision by a vote.”
Once the county was made aware of this change, the vote was removed from the BCC’s April 23 agenda. Falcione said without being notified of the change, it would be difficult to find it without reading every section and subsection of Florida Statute 125.01.04, which is more than 8,000 words long.
“I really wish the state would have notified at least the tourism director, the BCC, or the county administrator when this law passed in 2023,” Falcione said. “Unless I missed an email, this was the first we were made aware of the change, so therefore the county administrator made a prudent move to remove the vote from the agenda until we sort things out.”
Falcione also said that Manatee County would be the first county in Florida to be subjected to the new law, as no other county has reached the required criteria to increase the tax since the change was made. He believes had another county hit this roadblock before Manatee, word would have reached his office and the TDC would not have moved forward with a recommendation to the BCC.
How and when the voter referendum will take place has not yet been decided.
“We’re still trying to sort through everything,” Falcione said. “The attorney’s office is gathering information and we’re going through our protocol. When we get with the county commissioners, we want to make sure we are 100% accurate with the steps required and the options they have to consider this.”
Currently, neighboring counties of Sarasota, Hillsborough and Pinellas are all at the 6% maximum tourist tax. Falcione stresses that none of this tax is paid by residents of the county, but residents benefit from the tax, which goes to maintaining, upgrading and marketing attractions such as city piers, the new water taxi, beach parking lots and Anna Maria Bayfront Park, with a large portion going to beach renourishment.
Falcione says the TDC will not spend tax proceeds to promote the area during the busy spring season.
