After a four and a half hour meeting Tuesday night, the Pinellas board of county commissioners voted to continue the five percent bed tax until 2021.
The tourism and development council (TDC) handles the tax which comes from the five percent charged on hotel stays in the county. Dubbed the bed tax, it generates more than 20 million dollars annually towards tourism. According to the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), 98-percent of that tax is paid for by people outside of Pinellas. The fourth and fifth cent's profits are spent on specific projects. The fourth penny currently goes towards Tropicana field debt until 2015, but was slated to end there.
That's when board members from the Dali Museum came to the TDC and the BOCC asking for the renewal of the tax to go towards a $2.5 million shortfall from the new building. Soon, the possibility of a new Rays baseball stadium fell into the conversation which got the renewal proposal rolling four years early.
The Dali's board of trustee echelon came in hopes of making up the shortfall, touting the fact the Dali museum has been entirely privately funded until now.
"What we are asking for here is the final building block," said museum director Hank Hine. "The Dali is and will be an engine for economic activity."
Among those speaking in support of funding towards the Dali were Pinellas Education Foundation founder Gus Stavros and Raymond James president Tom James.
But the public opposition was just as loud.
"The Dali already existed without a $2.5 million earmark being sought," said resident Jeff Mokely.
While the initial proposal Tuesday night was to extend the tax indefinitely, that motion failed to get majority support from the board. Instead, they voted 5-2 on a compromised extension until 2021 which would include the money needed for the completion of the Dali museum, which will come in installments of $500,000 a year. Money from tax renewal would also go towards beach re-nourishment and other tourism development, potentially a new stadium for the Rays.
Board opposition of the plan included a last minute proposal by Norm Roche seeking the end of the tax. Commissioner Nancy Bostock stated she didn't think board had enough time to discuss the issue.
"I am really trying to support this," Bostock said. "But I can't get past that this is the first time as a body that we have really discussed this."
But chairwoman Karen Seel worked with the TDC in drafting the plan to renew the tax. Seel stressed that renewing the tax would still require review of its effectiveness in 2016.
Commissioner Ken Welch supported the renewal.
"We need to read the tea leaves so to speak," Welch said. "The dollars we've been receiving for beach re-nourishment have went away and we need to keep that in mind as well."
Seel indicated that although the TDC had discussed using some of the bed tax funds towards a new Rays stadium, no plans for the potential stadium existed yet.
"I don't know of any stadium, and am not anticipating any stadium," Seel said.
Commissioner Neil Brickfield concurred.
"If fact, the silence has been deafening from baseball," Brickfield said.
St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster spoke towards the end of the meeting, but stated he couldn't add too much to the conversation due to the contract with the city and the Rays.
"This is like a contractual gag order," Foster said. "They can't talk about it and we can't talk about it. And I don't anticipate those conversations occurring after my last conversation with Mr. Sternberg. But I don't plan to have any stadium talks without the public's input."
This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2010.