"The math doesn’t work."
When Seminole County decided last February to let hotels put a new $1.75 per-night fee on local hotel rooms, the idea was to raise millions of dollars to build a new indoor events center.
But with an estimated price tag of upwards of $100 million for the 172,000 square-foot facility — roughly twice what the hotel fee could support — county leaders now realize their plan has a big hole.
“The math doesn’t work,” Commissioner Andria Herr said Tuesday during a staff presentation. “We all need to have realistic expectations or be willing to have realistic expectations elsewhere in the spending of the county dollars.”
Advocates had hoped it might be possible for the complex to be built entirely with revenue from Seminole’s new tourism improvement district fee, or TID.
Now they are asking whether Seminole should tap other revenue sources for the additional millions needed, such as its penny sales tax, sponsorships, or the taxpayers’ money set aside for parks in the county’s general fund.
Read more at the Orlando Sentinel