Quinnie Perez Becomes Florida's First Transgender Person Elected to Public Office
Perez won a seat on Orange County’s Soil and Water Conservation District, a board with hardly any budget or power, but one she hopes to improve
Nov. 4, 2026
By Beth Kassab
Quinnie Perez made history Tuesday night as the first openly transgender person elected to public office in Florida.
Her position, Seat 1 on the Orange County Soil and Water Conservation District, doesn’t carry much authority. The district has no dedicated funding source and little power over policy other than a bully pulpit.
But Perez, 32, said her election sent a message about the effectiveness of connecting with voters on the campaign trail. She hopes to use that experience, along with lessons learned while working on other campaigns, to raise the district’s profile.
Jimm Middleton
First, though, she needs time to absorb what she described as the astonishing outcome of her victory. Perez captured nearly 37% of more than 96,000 votes cast. Opponent Doug Sahr received 32%, while Vicente Rafael Perez Carreno received about 18%. Another 13% of voters left their ballots blank.
“I’m still in shock,” Perez said Wednesday morning. “Last night was definitely something else. I won in probably the most conservative part of Orange County. I did not expect to win.”
Seat 1 encompasses a broad swath of southwest Orange, including Hunter’s Creek, Winter Garden, Oakland and Lake Buena Vista.
“My phone is just blowing up,” she said.
Perez, who describes herself as the daughter of Mexican farmworkers, grew up in Ocala and now works in the medical cannabis industry.
She said a typical campaign day started at 4 a.m. so she could clock in at her day job by 6 a.m. After work, she would “hit the pavement” and attend events to get her name out to voters.
She also raised about $6,000 — a modest war chest by most political standards, but more than any other candidate in the races for the district’s seats.
Her identity as a transgender person, she said, likely helped her campaign in some ways but hurt it in others.
“It was probably a little bit of both,” Perez said. “Whenever someone told me they voted for me and I asked them why they usually said something about the merits of the campaign. Being trans wasn’t something that really came up. But I tried to build a broad coalition and the people who didn’t vote for me probably weren’t going to vote for me anyway.”
Quinnie Perez speaks to supporters on Election Night. (Photo courtesy of VoxPopuli)
Perez said she began identifying as transgender about four years ago, while still in her 20s. After experiencing depression and burnout, she began to better understand what made her feel healthy and “more like myself.”
When she considered running for office, some friends who had also worked on previous campaigns with her expressed support but raised concerns about her safety.
“People did say, ‘I love this for you, but be safe,'” she recalled. “But ultimately this was something that is bigger than myself.”
Quinnie Perez
Jimm Middleton, who won the district’s Seat 5, representing Winter Park, over Zack Green with 48% of the vote, said he was happy for Perez and admired the campaign she ran.
Middleton had personally supported Carreno for Seat 1 because the two already volunteer together for the district. They had tried to run as a slate along with Erik Melear, who sought Seat 3.
“I’ve got to give credit where credit is due,” said Middleton, who works as an IT manager at Walt Disney World. “She was out there raising money and getting a bunch of endorsements and personally greeting voters.”
Middleton said he was disappointed that Carreno and Melear, who lost to José Antonio Rodriguez, would not be joining him on the district board. Still, he was hopeful the district could improve the way it operates.
“I’m OK with anybody who can get work done,” Middleton said of the winners. “As long as people contribute.”
The district board, whose members receive no pay and lack even basic resources such as an official email address, has struggled in the past with members missing meetings and failing to take ownership of their roles.
The board has no significant budget and must fundraise to cover some of its needs, but the district itself has been around for about 80 years. Florida began establishing soil and water conservation districts as far back as the 1930s, charging them with carrying out local programs to conserve and protect soil, water and land for agricultural purposes.
In recent years, lawmakers in Tallahassee have made several attempts to abolish the districts outright, though none has succeeded.
Several candidates argued that a board focused on teaching residents best practices to maintain clean water, the local tree canopy and growing plants and food could surge back to relevance. They point to an age of AI data centers that consume water and power, soaring grocery prices and environmental challenges such as frequent named storms.
According to the district’s current budget plan, it will hold a fundraiser in November, an attempt to raise the board’s profile and build a cash balance that is starting from nearly zero. The district projects about $3,000 in cash and nearly $1,000 in expenses, including renting a post office box, maintaining its rudimentary website and buying supplies for outreach and education events, such as handouts and volunteer shirts.
Its most critical budget item is a donation in the form of space and services from Orange County government valued at about $11,000. The donation includes a meeting room for the board, broadcasts of its meetings on OrangeTV and some legal services.
The board members use their personal email addresses to conduct business and, without a staff, volunteer for different roles such as acting as treasurer, keeping records, sending out agendas and minutes and updating the website and Facebook page.
The amount for the Dr. Phillips arts center was reduced and commissioners rejected a bid to give the convention center more money
Oct. 19, 2026
By Beth Kassab
The Orange County Commission on Monday approved nearly $1 billion in projects funded by tourist development tax revenue, including new sports facilities at UCF and a $50 million reduction in funding for the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
A last-minute push to include several hundred million dollars for another expansion of the Orange County Convention Center, which has already cost $2 billion, failed to gain support from any commissioner except Mike Crabb, who was appointed to Seat 2 in August by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Representatives of the tourism industry joined forces with local labor union members in an unusual alliance to urge Mayor Jerry Demings to delay a vote on his plan to spend $860 million on 13 projects. Demings refused, arguing that a delay could mean many projects he considered worthy might never get another chance at funding. He also bristled at assertions that the decision-making process lacked transparency or had been rushed, rejecting the suggestion that he should leave the matter to whoever is elected mayor next month.
“Yes, [the end of] our tenure is for some of us just months away, but it doesn’t mean that we should just sit here and do nothing,” Demings said. “This is my home, where I was born and raised. For nearly seven decades, I’ve lived here. I have put my life on the line for this community. Been in some tough situations over the years. My blood, my sweat, my tears have gone into working on behalf of this community. I will not retreat from working in my home and taking care of the people who live here.”
The 6-1 vote followed five hours of public testimony and debate.
Commissioner Kelly Semrad, who represents Winter Park, voted against the plan. Demings, Nicole Wilson, Crabb, Mayra Uribe, Maribel Gomez Cordero and Mike Scott voted in favor. Demings and Uribe are set to leave office soon, while Crabb and Scott are seeking election on Nov. 3.
Kelly Semrad
Nine speakers, many of whom worked in hotel management or other senior hospitality positions, urged the commission to add the convention center expansion to Demings’ list of projects.
Demings, however, said he was unwilling to consider such a change. The previous expansion, for which he helped secure funding, is still under construction, and he questioned whether another expansion was necessary for the center to remain nationally competitive.
“How big is big enough?” Demings asked. “How big is too big? And there are citizens who think that that’s not the appropriate place to make investments.”
Crabb twice attempted to amend Demings’ plan. He presented a spreadsheet he had prepared with different funding amounts for the projects to make room for the convention center expansion. After his first motion failed, he tried again, this time seeking to delay votes on both the convention center and the arts center while funding the other projects. Both times the other commissioners sat in silence rather than offering a second for his motions and both failed.
At least 14 of the 78 speakers told commissioners they were concerned about transportation in Orange County and wanted some tourist tax revenue directed toward improving roads, bus service and rail.
“I point out all these venues that you want to additionally fund are functional. They have options,” said Eugene Staccardo, a resident and civic activist. “This community doesn’t have an adequate transit system for tourism, even after billions of dollars of upgrades to I-4. It’s functionally not meeting the needs of [the] community … Say no to these large TDT proposals that will financially tie our hands for decades. Reserve the money for the future and to be used on hopefully a future transit system.”
Demings said he did not believe the Florida Legislature would expand the legally permitted uses of tourist development tax revenue to allow Orange County to spend the money on local needs such as public transportation.
“This legislature and those in the immediate past have not been so kind to this community,” he said. “They preempted us left and right. We have been left to figure it out on our own … Every one of these projects that we talked about today will add jobs. You would think that not any of those jobs are good jobs, but I’m here to tell you, many of those jobs are good jobs.”
Florida lawmakers have, however, granted exceptions allowing specific communities to use tourist tax revenue for local needs, such as affordable housing and public safety, after those communities mounted strong campaigns for the changes.
Semrad questioned why her colleagues were willing to disregard both residents’ concerns about transportation and projections in Demings’ own plan showing that TDT reserves would fall below the recommended $300 million threshold in the coming years as a result of the spending.
Demings and county staff members said the projections assumed annual TDT revenue growth of 2% over much of the next 10 years, though actual growth could be higher. They also said the county’s convention center capital spending plan includes additional TDT revenue for projects such as elevator repairs and fire alarm system replacements. Because those funds are not always fully spent, they argued, the projections were conservative.
“You’re okay with it, and I hear all the reasons why that math works,” Semrad told the group. “But I’m also familiar with market uncertainty and the conditions in today’s marketplace that are concerning, and that numbers could soften, especially in terms of travel. We all see it at the pumps. You guys, anybody who’s bought an airline ticket lately knows how expensive it’s getting. It’s going to impact our tourism industry … So I’m uncomfortable when I see red numbers.”
Ultimately, Uribe moved to keep reserves at the recommended threshold by reducing the allocation for the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts from $400 million to $350 million.
The arts center is receiving the largest share of the mayor’s TDT spending plan to build new theaters, add parking and make other improvements.
Kathy Ramsberger, the center’s president and CEO, addressed the commission and confirmed that the center could still move forward with its projects under the reduced allocation.
The following slides show the approved spending plan with the exception of the reduced arts center figure:
What's Going On? I-Drive Chamber, Unions, Kelly Semrad All Call to Slow Down Giving Away TDT Money
The unusual allies expressed concerns ahead of a meeting today where the County Commission is set to consider Mayor Jerry Demings’ plan to give out nearly $1 billion
Oct. 19, 2026
By Beth Kassab
When the Chamber of Commerce that represents the largest tourism interests on International Drive aligns with both the local labor union and the county commissioner who was elected on a campaign of pushing back against tourism’s political power, it’s a rare day in Orange County.
Those unusual allies appear to have different motivations, but they’re calling for the same thing: They want Orange Mayor Jerry Demings to slow down his push to allocate nearly $1 billion in Tourist Development Tax revenue to 13 projects without subjecting each one to greater scrutiny or more fully assessing what local communities will need over the long term.
Today, those groups will be seeking answers to a number of questions when Demings and County Commissioners meet this afternoon for a special meeting at which Demings will seek approval of his recommendations for the 13 projects.
Among those questions, which center on a process that began in late July with the first meeting of Demings’ 34-member citizen task force to evaluate the projects, are:
How and why was a proposal to spend $46 million on new soccer and track-and-field facilities at the University of Central Florida (UCF) added back to Demings’ list as his 13th recommendation after the citizen task force made only 12 recommendations and funding for UCF didn’t even garner enough support for a full vote?
Will proponents of another expansion of the Orange County Convention Center succeed in getting that project added to the recommendation list in the final hours, even though the citizen task force also rejected it?
Were all the projects evaluated using the same comparable metrics and standards agreed upon by the task force to justify the use of public dollars?
If the County Commission funds all 13 projects at the recommended levels, will any additional hotel bed-tax revenue be available for transportation or other local needs if the state eventually allows the expanded uses of the tax revenue recommended by the citizen task force? Both candidates seeking to become Florida’s next governor have expressed support for expanding those uses.
“Government moves slow until you put a billion dollars on the table for the tourism industry then it moves at the speed of light,” said Commissioner Kelly Semrad, who represents Winter Park, describing the timeline, which began less than three months ago.
Today’s meeting could provide the last major opportunity for debate on Demings’ plan to spend more than $860 million, mostly over the next 10 years. Some of the financial obligations, however, would extend much longer. Debt service on a major expansion of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, for example, would cost about $32.8 million annually for as long as 30 years.
The plan outlined by Mayor Jerry Demings as presented recently to county commissioners.
The meeting comes just two weeks before Election Day, when voters will select a new mayor and four commissioners, and about eight weeks before the winners are sworn into office.
John Stine, chairman of the International Drive Resort Area Chamber of Commerce, called the process “rushed and flawed” in a letter to the editor published in Sunday’s Orlando Sentinel.
“County commissioners have a responsibility to independently examine the recommendations before committing funds,” Stine wrote. “A task force recommendation should begin that scrutiny, not replace it. Unanswered questions require answers. Incomplete financial information requires further review.”
Similarly, the union representing food-service, housekeeping, and other workers at Walt Disney World and hotels near Universal Orlando and the Convention Center called for more time before the financial commitments are finalized.
Union leaders said Sunday in a news release that they would hold a news conference just before Demings’ meeting to urge the county to “take more time to evaluate the size and scope of the proposed commitments, provide greater transparency on the TDT financial picture, preserve flexibility for future transportation investments, and ensure tourism workers and the incoming County Commission have an opportunity to weigh in before long-term decisions are finalized.”
According to the county webpage dedicated to the citizen task force, today’s work session will be followed by a special Tourist Development Tax meeting on Nov. 6 and then a regular County Commission meeting on Dec. 1, just days before Demings is scheduled to leave office.
Linda Chapin, the former Orange County mayor who served as co-chair of the citizen task force, defended its process in an interview with the Voice on Sunday.
“We spent twice as much time on this task force as the last one did,” Chapin said. “We heard from three times as many applicants as the last one did, and we worked very hard to make sure this money benefited people across the community, so I will be very disappointed if they don’t move ahead.”
She said she was pleased that projects from Ocoee to Eatonville to more money to be handed out later to smaller arts organizations made it into the recommendations. She pointed to recent projects in Winter Park that received tourist development tax dollars such as the Rollins art museum and the Winter Park Playhouse as examples of how the tax is benefiting communities across the county rather than just in the central tourism areas.
Chapin did acknowledge, however, that she was “a little surprised” to see UCF’s project added to Demings’ recommendations after no one on the task force seconded a motion to include it among the projects the group endorsed.
She also said she was “very frustrated” that the task force was never given specifics about how much money it had to work with as it met in July and August.
A PowerPoint presentation provided to commissioners by county staff last week included a chart showing that the projected costs of the 13 projects would exceed revenues from 2028 through 2032 before the balance returned to positive territory in 2033. The tax’s unallocated cash reserves, or rainy-day fund, would dip below the comptroller’s recommended target of $300 million in 2031, 2032, and 2033, according to projections that assume 8% growth in TDT revenue in 2026 and 2% annual growth thereafter.
But Chapin dismissed the notion that funding the recommended projects would tie up all available funds for the next decade. She also said she was concerned about what might really be driving some calls to slow the process until a new County Commission takes office.
“I fear that for some of these people, not all, it’s a ploy to see if they can put it off until the next board so they can give money to the convention center,” Chapin said.
She plans to attend today’s work session and said, “if I need to issue a red flag about the convention center, I’ll stand up and do it.”
Semrad and others, including Winter Park Mayor Sheila DeCiccio, who advocate directing more of the tax revenue toward local needs such as transportation infrastructure, say the latest convention center expansion’s failure to win approval from the task force was a victory for the community. They view the convention center, which has already cost $2 billion, as primarily benefiting hotels and businesses along International Drive.
Mike Crabb, who was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to represent District 2, which includes Apopka, and is now in a runoff on Nov. 3 against Kamia Brown, sent a memo to fellow commissioners last week urging them to add the convention center back to the list of projects slated for funding. Among other recommendations, he suggested allocating $523 million to the convention center while reducing the $400 million Demings recommended for the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts to $150 million.
Commissioner Mike Scott, who represents the International Drive area, along with Tangelo Park and Pine Hills, and is seeking reelection next month against Lawanna Gelzer, also pushed to reconsider the convention center at a recent commission meeting.
Roseann Harrington, Demings’ chief of staff, said in an email to Semrad that the mayor had the discretion to add UCF back to the list because “commissioners mentioned three times” when they accepted the task force’s recommendations in August that the action “did not limit them to only selecting among the 12 recommended by the TDT Task Force. Commissioners expressed interest in the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) and UCF.”
When Semrad, a UCF professor who studies hospitality economics, asked for more detail about how the projects were evaluated for economic impact and why the county used a traditional economic analysis rather than what she considered more informative measures — such as jobs and wages, geographic reach, long-term operating costs, financial sustainability, and future TDT revenue generation — Harrington suggested that Semrad conduct her own analysis.
“After speaking with six of the seven BCC members on the type of fiscal analysis they would like conducted, the consensus was to do a traditional economic analysis consistent with the work done by GSU,” Harrington wrote. “With that said, since you have expertise in financial and community analysis, please feel free to do your own research and we will be glad to distribute to the BCC.”
Semrad argued that clearer guidelines were needed not only for the metrics but also for the process.
“My concern is that both the applicant pool and the scope of that analysis appear to have changed without further public Board discussion,” she wrote to Harrington.
Will Orange Mayors Join Push to Rethink how Tourist Taxes are Spent?
Winter Park’s resolution is the latest sign of growing pressure to use the county’s nearly $400 million in annual Tourist Development Tax revenue for transportation, affordable housing and other needs
Sept. 15, 2026
By Beth Kassab
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio sent an email this week to her counterparts in other Orange County cities urging them to adopt resolutions in support of using the Tourist Development Tax to help pay for local needs such as transportation improvements and more affordable housing.
Winter Park adopted such a resolution last week that calls for Orange County to “explore every avenue to expand alternative uses of the tax, including but not limited to transportation and affordable housing, adding additional pennies, and lowering the 40% threshold for tourism promotion, and to make this a legislative priority.”
“This is the direction we need to go considering potentially November and the regional areas wanting to get access to public transportation,” said Commissioner Kris Cruzada during a brief discussion.
“November” referred to Amendment 3 on the Nov. 3 ballot, which could significantly reduce property tax collections by increasing the homestead exemption for homeowners and capping property tax growth on commercial and other properties. Property taxes pay for local police and fire departments, road and infrastructure work, parks and recreation and other services provided by local governments.
But the outcry over how Orange County spends its enormous haul of tax dollars collected on hotel rooms — a record $385 million last year — started long before the push this year to threaten property tax revenues.
A disparate chorus of local voices, from County Commissioner Kelly Semrad — who represents Winter Park and was elected on a platform that included reforming TDT in 2024 — to a few local lawmakers and Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell, who was one of the earliest advocates for change, has reached a crescendo in recent years, urging that the largesse be used to help solve problems that stem from hosting 75 million visitors a year and housing the low-wage workers who power the tourism industry.
DeCiccio’s effort appears to be the first to attempt to organize mayors to come together on the topic and push for change at the county level.
Commissioner Warren Lindsey applauded her leadership shortly after the unanimous vote on Winter Park’s resolution.
“Hopefully it’ll make a difference to not only people in Winter Park but everyone in the Orlando area,” he said.
The wording of the resolution mirrors a recommendation made last month by Mayor Jerry Demings’ most recent Citizen Advisory Task Force, which, in a stunning rebuke of the long-held status quo, also voted down spending the tax on yet another expansion of the Convention Center, a parking garage at Camping World Stadium and more projects at the University of Central Florida.
Instead, the 34-member group, made up of appointees of county commissioners and city mayors, recommended spending more of the dollars collected from levies on hotel rooms on grants to support local arts and culture, as well as ecotourism projects.
The projects related to the Orange County Convention Center, Florida Citrus Sports, the University of Central Florida as well as the bottom four projects on the above list were NOT recommended by the citizen task force.
The Orange County mayor and Board of County Commissioners arguably have the most power to change the way TDT money is spent.
They have the ultimate say over which projects get the dollars each year within the current confines of the spending rules. And, if other counties across Florida provide any guide, they could succeed in getting state permission to use the dollars for local needs if they made a deliberate lobbying push in Tallahassee.
But Demings, who has served as Orange County mayor since 2018, has not made a major effort to that end — or at least not a public one. Such a campaign would likely involve not only making a case to state lawmakers but also attempting to coalesce the major hotels, as well as Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando and other attractions, behind the idea.
November will also bring a new mayor for Orange County for the first time in eight years and, in another sign that the tide could be turning, both candidates recently rejected the idea of another convention center expansion and said they would support broadening how TDT dollars can be spent.
Linda Chapin moderated a forum last week between Tiffany Moore Russell and Chris Messina for the Orange County League of Women Voters and tried to pin both candidates down on the topic.
Chapin, who served as Orange County’s elected leader in the 1990s and just co-chaired the citizen task force, asked if they would support a convention center expansion.
Moore Russell, a former county commissioner and clerk of court and a Democrat in a very blue-leaning county who lives in Horizon West, hedged her response somewhat on the idea that “data” could one day show a need for more investment in the center.
“I would not have supported the expansion of the convention center unless I saw data that showed me where are we trying to go, what is it trying to achieve, and what’s the return on that investment,” she said. “And so, out of all the projects that I’ve seen so far, I’m a fan of the cultural and arts projects because I think they enhance our quality of life in this community. I am not a fan right now of building any major facilities until we know how do we support those who work in tourism? … We know we have a transportation challenge when it comes to those who visit here and those who work in the industry, as well as affordable housing and workforce housing. So for me, I’m not a fan of big projects right now because I think we need to support those who make our industry thrive in this community.”
Messina, a businessman and Republican who lives in unincorporated Winter Park, said he does not support an expansion because the convention business has changed and said he would have given more support to a proposed long-shot baseball project known as the Dreamers.
Under one scenario, a chart provided by Orange County, shows how the projects can be funded and maintain reserves. Multiple scenarios were presented at the county meeting on Aug. 25.
“There are only so many very large conventions you can bring into Orange County,” he said. “So I know we lost the Home Builders convention, and it was sort of like the sky is falling for some people, but that’s actually not the case. It’s better to be targeting two medium-sized conventions. They’ll bring more money, more business into Orange County than one large convention. One thing, though, I’ve been very public about that I would have done with the TDT dollars, is I would have looked at supporting the Dreamers in some way, shape, or fashion.”
When Chapin followed up about how the candidates would like to see Tourist Development Dollars used, Messina said he supported using them for tourist-related transportation, but not much else.
“I think we can look at an expanded definition of what tourism is, and without trying to go too far,” he said. “So, for instance, we have a world-class firefighting center, and we have a world-class SWAT team here. So why don’t we do some marketing around that and bring firefighters from around the world, SWAT teams from around the world, for a competition? That’s one thing we could do. Second thing, we can expand it to include transportation that’s focused on bringing tourists to their primary destinations, so from the airport to one of the big hotels or the theme parks. I think that’s a good use of the expanded TDT dollars. But beyond that, to affordable housing? I think that’s a stretch too far and will run us into a brick wall in terms of the legislation.”
Moore Russell was more willing to expand uses but echoed concerns expressed by Demings that the governor and state legislature could attempt to seize on the pot of money for their own use if given an opening.
“I want to marry this also with a question you asked previously about home rule,” she said during the forum. “So I am open to expanding the legislation, but I’m concerned that Tallahassee will take over the control of how we spend our TDT dollars. So we have to be very mindful and keep our eye on the control of our local dollar … But I do believe there is an opportunity to look at our statute about how we can support indirectly, or things that are impacted by tourism. So, you know, transportation — not just moving those who visit Orange County, but the people who work in this industry. There are many who ride the bus, to get to our theme parks, to get to our hotels, who are making sure that we are a great destination to visit. I believe we can justify with the data why we should invest those dollars. Workforce housing down on I-Drive for people to be able to live where they work? I think we can justify that.”
Today, the money is primarily used to pay off debt related to the convention center, as well as support its operations and maintenance, along with subsidizing advertising for the tourism industry and paying debt for the city of Orlando on the arena used by the Orlando Magic.
County officials have long pointed to a state law that governs the tax and limits its uses as the reason the pot of dollars can’t be used to pay for mass transit, public safety, affordable housing or other essential needs.
But other counties have succeeded in carving exceptions into the law when they have made a deliberate lobbying push.
For example, some beachfront counties are now allowed to use tourist tax dollars to fund lifeguards and law enforcement services “which are needed to address impacts related to increased tourism and visitors to an area.” And in 2024, the Legislature allowed local governments in the Florida Keys to use a portion of the money to purchase or build affordable housing.
A critical issue now is the timing of when the County Commission will vote on projects recommended by the task force or move to reintroduce the convention center or other proposals into the mix.
If Demings pushes the matter forward in the final months of his term, then it’s possible there won’t be any money left for the county to spend on other needs such as public transit.
Both DeCiccio and Semrad have expressed concerns about that happening.
A county spokeswoman said a date for the next vote and discussion in front of the Orange Commission has not been set, but that Demings intends to hear the matter before new commissioners and a new mayor take their posts on Nov. 17.
Winter Park Steps Out Front to Challenge Status Quo on Tourist Taxes
Will other cities follow a call to push Orange County and lawmakers to use the public money for transit and other needs?
Sept. 8, 2026
By Beth Kassab
UDPATE: This story has been updated to include a comment from Winter Garden City Manager Jon Williams.
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio and others on the City Commission are already on the record saying they want to see Orange County use its gargantuan pot of tourist tax dollars to solve local problems that come along with welcoming masses of visitors each day such as fixing crowded roads and improving the local bus and rail systems.
The question the Winter Park Commission seems to be asking now is: “Who’s with us?”
On Wednesday, the Commission will take up a resolution that solidifies its position that local governments should “explore every avenue to expand alternative uses of the tax, including but not limited to transportation and affordable housing, adding additional pennies, and lowering the 40% threshold for tourism promotion, and to make this a legislative priority.”
Such an action would not only serve as a message to the Orange County Commission, and particularly whoever is elected in November as the next Orange mayor, but also as a call for other cities to follow suit.
Michael Poole, the local investment banker who DeCiccio appointed as the city’s representative to Orange County’s latest citizen task force on the tourism development tax, put the political juggernaut that is changing the status quo in stark terms to Winter Park officials.
“You know, it’s hard to do it from behind the curtain,” Poole told city commissioners at a meeting last month. “ButIthinkifyouguyswouldlead,Ithinkothercities …Imetotherrepresentatives … theyalltalkthesamewaythatwe’retalking.Thatweneedmoneyfordifferentthings,especiallytransportation … Ithinkothercitieswouldfollowyourlead,especiallyifyoucalledthemupandsaid, ‘Hey,let’sdothistogether.'”
Leaders in neighboring Maitland told the Voice they would consider a similar resolution.
“I can see the case for it,” said Scot French, the Maitland council member who will take over as interim mayor in November when John Lowndes resigns because he is seeking a state Senate seat. “We’ll certainly have a louder voice if we’re speaking in concert on these issues … My sense is there is a great deal of support for broadening the areas in which these funds can be spent to include transportation and county-wide problems.”
Winter Garden City Manager Jon Williams said his city, which has a population of about 46,000 people on the west side of the county, has not taken a formal position, but generally supports expanded uses of the tax.
Officials in Orlando, Apopka and other cities in Orange County did not immediately respond to questions about the uses of TDT from the Voice.
DeCiccio has emerged as an outspoken voice in favor of using the 6% tax levied on hotel rooms for infrastructure projects. She said she is grateful Winter Park-based groups such as the Rollins College art museum and the Winter Park Playhouse have received grants in recent years from a portion of TDT set aside for arts and sports organizations, but sees a greater need that still isn’t being fulfilled.
“I’m a firm believer we need to get a train from the airport to the attractions to I-Drive and to Winter Park,” DeCiccio said. “And affordable housing is so necessary right now,” she said pointing to Killarney Elementary, which serves a portion of Winter Park and lists 20% of its students as homeless, often because they are living in motels or doubling up with another family.
The projects related to the Orange County Convention Center, Florida Citrus Sports, the University of Central Florida as well as the bottom four projects on the above list were NOT recommended by the citizen task force.
Orange County collects the largest haul in all of Florida when it comes to hotel taxes — a record $385 million last year. The money is primarily used to pay off debt related to the convention center as well as support its operations and maintenance along with paying to subsidize advertising and promotion for the tourism industry and pay debt for the city of Orlando on the arena used by the Orlando Magic.
County officials have long pointed to a state law that governs the tax and limits its uses as the reason why the pot of dollars can’t be used to pay for mass transit, public safety, affordable housing or other essential needs.
But, to be clear, other counties have succeeded in carving exceptions into the law when they have made a deliberate lobbying push.
For example, some beachfront counties are now allowed to use tourist tax dollars to fund lifeguards and law enforcement services “which are needed to address impacts related to increased tourism and visitors to an area.” And in 2024 the Legislature allowed local governments in the Florida Keys to use a portion of the money to purchase or build affordable housing.
The current law also says if a county that spends at least 40% of its tourist tax revenue on tourism promotion then it can spend a portion of the tax dollars on transportation, sewer, water or “pedestrian facilities.”
Some members like Poole have suggested that, depending on how the figure is counted, Orange County might already meet the threshold.
Orange County says it’s spending 26% to 30% on tourism advertising, according to Poole, but he also said he doesn’t have the calculation for how that figure was determined.
“All I know is people have asked for it and we haven’t gotten it. Maybe people you know might be able to get it,” he told DeCiccio at a city meeting.
“I’ve tried,” she responded. ” I don’t have that much pull. I wish I did.”
The resolution Winter Park will vote on this week is based, nearly word-for-word, on one of the recommendations made last month by Orange Mayor Jerry Demings’ TDT Citizen Advisory Task Force.
DeCiccio and others including County Commissioner Kelly Semrad, who represents Winter Park, urged Demings to expand representation on the group to more people who understand what it is like to live in different parts of the county rather than be focused on a group of people who mostly represent the interests of the major hotels, theme parks and the convention center.
Tourism companies are known for pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into political campaigns for local offices.
“In looking at the proposed makeup of the Task Force, it appears to be heavily weighted toward those who currently benefit from how TDT funds are allocated,” DeCiccio wrote in a letter to Demings in June. “I respectfully request the Task Force makeup be weighted more to the entities that represent the people of Orange County and the entities that must provide the needed infrastructure.”
As a result, Demings allowed each county commissioner to appoint two people from their districts instead of just one to serve on the task force. Each city was allowed to appoint one person to the group.
Lowndes, the current mayor of Maitland, sent Demings a letter in July urging a broader scope for the task force than evaluating capital proposals like a convention center expansion or new museums. He called on Demings to help “fairly distribute the burden” of supporting low-wage tourism workers across the county.
“Tourism is, of course, the prime engine of Central Florida’s economy,” wrote Lowndes, who is challenging Sen. Jason Brodeur for a district that includes parts of Orange and Seminole counties. “It demands strong infrastructure: roads, mass transit for tourists and tourist-corridor workers, robust public safety, and affordable housing for thousands who work in the industry, many at modest wages. The residents of Orange County now shoulder much of this burden through our property taxes. Certainly, the community benefits from tourism, but it is time to fairly distribute the burden.”
A snapshot of promotional materials on the website for Visit Orlando, which receives dollars from the TDT to subsidize industry advertising.
Together, Maitland and Winter Park represent about 50,000 people, including about 35,000 registered voters who are close to evenly split between Republican and Democrat, according to the latest voter roll statistics. That’s a small piece of the voter roll for all of Orange County, which tallies about 813,000 registered voters who lean Democrat (39%) over Republican (28%) with the remainder without a party affiliation or registered to a third party (33%).
But there is evidence the sentiment in Winter Park and Maitland is present elsewhere given the actions of the committee led by former Orange Mayor Linda Chapin and Lift Orlando President Eddy Moratin.
The 34-member task force spent much of its time evaluating 20 applications for a combined $3 billion dollars to build everything from a Zora Neale Hurston museum in Eatonville to another expansion of the convention center at a proposed $523 million and a nearly $1 billion expansion of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
Ultimately, the group did not include the convention center among it’s list of recommended projects — a notable shift from a similar task force that convened just three years ago.
A chart from Orange County shows reserves (bottom line) dipping below the recommended $300 million by 2030 if the Top 9 projects are funded in the above scenario.
Chapin, who led the county from 1990-1998 and has a theater named for her in the convention center after overseeing previous expansions, noted that since the inception of the tourist development tax more than $3 billion was spent on the building. This time around, she said, she couldn’t support a motion to approve another addition.
“Giventheopportunitieswehavetobenefitmoreofthecommunityanddifferentkindsofvisitors,” she told the group. “Theideaofmovingthisforwardwhenitisstillunderconstructionfromthelastamounttheyweregranted … whatIwouldliketoseeisthatwevotethemotiondown,expectthe County Commissiontorequestareviewofallthat’sbeendonewhentheprojectiscompleted,andthendecide,dependingonwhatthecircumstancesareatthatpointintime,toeithermoveforwardwithmoreornot. SoIwon’tbesupportingthemotion.”
And the group took extra time to discuss and include a recommendation that Orange County expand its uses of the tax — the one Winter Park is now looking to formalize in a resolution.
That motion was made by Chapin and seconded by Doug Gomber, who was the city of Ocoee’s representative to the group. Chris Mueller, a Hilton executive who represented the International Drive Chamber of Commerce and Jacqueline Bozzuto, a Lowndes law firm attorney who works with hospitality clients and represented the Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association, voted against the recommendation.
Central to the discussion now is whether enough political will exists among leaders in Orange County to follow through with that recommendation and ask the Legislature when it convenes again next year for an exception similar to the way other areas in the state have received special permission for certain needs.
Also in question is how much money from hotel collections would be left — if any at all — for mass transit or affordable housing if the County Commission approves all or even some of the projects that the task force recommended move forward. The task force was not told how much money they had to work with so they didn’t put dollar figures to their recommendations, though those asking for the money listed a dollar figure in their requests.
The Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, for example, is asking for $750 million for new theaters and a parking garage and other improvements at its downtown Orlando campus. If the entire amount was funded it would leave little to nothing for new uses like transportation improvements sought by Winter Park and others.
“Ifthemoneyforalltheseprojectsispaidoutforthenext10years,therewon’tbeanyextramoney.So,howwillwebeabletopayfortransportationthen?” DeCiccio asked at a recent City Commission meeting, noting Dr. Phillips’ request to build 11 more theaters struck her as “a little excessive.”
Under a different fund scenario, a chart provided by Orange County, shows how the projects can be funded and mostly maintain reserves. Multiple scenarios were presented at the county meeting on Aug. 25.
The County Commission accepted the task force’s recommendations late last month, but did not give an official a thumbs up or thumbs down to any of the projects on the list. At least two county commissioners said they even wanted to reconsider more projects, which means the convention center or Camping World Stadium could still receive funding.
Semrad, who was elected in 2024 after running on a platform of expanding the uses of TDT and refusing to take any campaign contributions from the tourism industry, called the process rushed and said she was disappointed there wasn’t more clarity surrounding how much money will be available.
A county spokeswoman said the comptroller is working on the question of exactly how much funding can be used and the timing of that funding. Then the County Commission will made a decision on who gets money and who doesn’t and whether the group will back a push to use the dollars for more community needs.
“[The Legislature]pretty much gives the changes when cities ask for them,” DeCiccio told the Voice. “We want to do it but we aren’t strong enough to do it alone. We need Orange County.”
The county commission appears to support the comptroller’s plan to keep at least $300 million from TDT reserves in case of an economic downturn so that figure is factoring into the discussion about what money is available and when.
Early voting for the General Election will run from Oct. 19 to Nov. 1
Central Florida supervisors say it’s time to get ‘election ready’
The following story originally published by Central Florida Public Media and is being republished in partnership with the News Collaborative of Central Florida
Supervisors of elections from throughout Central Florida find themselves battling misinformation as they promote voter participation and the safety and security of Florida elections.
Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Amy Pennock urged voters to contact their supervisor’s office for accurate information if they read a story that they don’t trust or that gives them “a bad gut feeling.”
“We are in the proactive confusion management business,” she said. “We all are out there trying to get you the right information so that when you get the wrong information you question it right away.”
The supervisors said they’re being transparent so voters can see the processes that keep Florida elections secure from tampering and interference.
That includes testing all devices used in each election, election audits and “layers” of cyber security.
“[I]n order for a bad actor to penetrate our election system with cyber breaches, they have to get on the internet,” said Lake County Supervisor of Elections Alan Hays. “Our tabulation networks are never ever connected to the internet. So you can sleep tight at night knowing that our tabulation system is not connected to the internet at any time.”
Volusia County Supervisor of Elections Lisa Lewis emphasized the security of their elections process. It’s something that she wants skeptical voters to see for themselves.
She said it’s “a little disheartening that people are so quick to believe the bad stuff rather than the good stuff.”
Hays said their goal is get all Americans, regardless of party, to participate.
“If you can fog a mirror and sign your name and you’re a citizen,” he said, “we want you to vote.”
Aug. 18 primary
The supervisors of elections said they especially want people to vote in the August primary, at which voter turnout can range from a dismal 17% to 24%.
Orange County Supervisor of Elections Karen Castor Dentel emphasized that the primary is important even if you’re not a registered Republican or Democrat.
“We have the county mayor, we have county commission, and these are all nonpartisan races,” she said. “School board, judicial, school board chair, some very consequential elections, and most of them will be determined in the primary.”
The supervisors underscored the need to be “election ready” and said they’re working to educate some voters about changes in their polling places due to congressional redistricting this year.
That includes making a plan to vote in one of three ways available in Florida: by mail, during early voting or at their polling place on Election Day.
ICE at the polls?
The supervisors also addressed fears that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers could be at polling places this year.
Brevard County’s Tim Bobanic says the FBI briefed Florida’s supervisors of elections at their latest conference. He cited a statute — Title 18 U.S. Code 592 — prohibiting troops at polling places.
“Armed federal agents,” Bobanic said, “are prohibited from conducting investigative activity in any place where election activity is being held.”
Hays, of Lake County, said Florida law has a 150-foot buffer around polling places that applies to those agents, too.
“There’s nothing in that law that excuses anybody from any agency, no matter whether it’s federal government, local government, or anything else, from being inside there,” Hays said.
He said law enforcement officers also are not allowed there, unless they’re voting, responding to an emergency, or working at the school where the polling place is situated.
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