OUR VIEW: The real cost of a dip into the tourist tax - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

OUR VIEW: The real cost of a dip into the tourist tax - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

OUR VIEW: The real cost of a dip into the tourist tax - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Posted: 16 Jan 2020 12:00 AM PST

Seeing nothing not to love about the idea of an enormous glass sushi boat of a building, teeming with fish and inescapably visible from Interstate 75, the Sarasota County Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to draft a letter of commitment to Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium containing a promise of $20 million in public money to build its new digs out east, in addition to the 11-plus acres of public land already donated.

True, it will be more like $30 million and change, with 30-year financing to be whittled down by annual payments of $1.2 million. That's the most practical scenario, as explained to the commissioners, since the amount that Mote wants the county to kick in cannot be found just now in our sofa cushions. And of course this is the way ambitious and beneficial regional amenities are paid for — like the Legacy Trail and the Atlanta Braves' spring training complex in North Port.

And as with the Braves venue, the most expedient way to make these payments will be by drawing from the 5% tourist development tax. At least one commissioner expressed a reluctance Wednesday to saddle the county's general fund with the gift to Mote — which makes sense, since nobody asked residents how they feel about investing in a big fish tank — and an aquarium qualifies under the law as a tourism-generating venue.

The Herald-Tribune has long supported the use of tourist-tax dollars to help diversify our economy. But with two baseball stadiums and dozens of beaches and parks to keep up, the only discretionary items in the budget are promotion and the arts. At this point, it looks like that's where Mote's money will come from.

It seems a good time to question whether it makes sense to swallow another long-term obligation, and rely on new waves of visitors to pay for it. Sarasota County may have reached the point in our tourist tax trajectory where our eyes are bigger than our stomach.

One commissioner, Nancy Detert, very reasonably asked whether more details about the financing scheme could be worked out before the county gave its word on the full $20 million. Carving out 5% of the annual tourist tax take for the Mote repayment is a step that has to pass through the Tourist Development Council, and seemingly no discussion has taken place about whether the county might choose to offer less than Mote asked for.

"I don't think we're ready for a dollar amount yet," Detert said, reaffirming her support for the project but asking whether the commitment had to be made before the scheme is nailed down. "We're coming to the end of a 10-year period of a fabulous economy," she pointed out.

So true. In the heady years since the Great Recession, growth in tourism attained heights of 5% to 7% annually. But in 2019 it was closer to 2.5%. This seems like an unfortunate time to stint on two proven drivers of the tourist economy — arts and promotion.

But Detert cast her vote with the rest after the point was made that a show of support now will bolster Mote's efforts to raise funding from the state and other sources.

Commissioner Christian Ziegler called the proposed Mote facility "an attraction that will promote itself." We hope he turns out to be right — although it's hard to find evidence that an aquarium, on its own, can lure vacationers who weren't coming here anyway.

The Herald-Tribune Editorial Board

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