by Beth Kassab | Jun 5, 2026 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, Election, Library, News, Police, Taxes, Uncategorized
What Does Winter Park Stand to Lose if Property Tax Cuts Pass?
Voters are expected to decide a ballot amendment in November initiated by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature that could dramatically alter how local governments operate
June 5, 2026
By Beth Kassab
What does Winter Park stand to lose if voters approve the plan by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature to dramatically reduce property taxes?
A picture of the potential fallout is becoming more clear just days after the Florida House and Senate voted to send the measure to the November ballot. Here’s what we know so far:
How much money will Winter Park lose?
Let’s break down the numbers.
In 2025, Winter Park collected about $48.5 million in taxes, according to Orange County Tax Collector Scott Randolph. The bulk of that, or about $41.1 million, is what is targeted by the state ballot amendment. Those are the dollars collected on real property — houses and businesses — based on that property’s assessed value.
Tax money that comes in from real property is divided into two categories: Homestead (the houses people live in and claim as their primary residence) and non-homestead (commercial properties, businesses, second homes or rental properties or other land).
The change ordered by the Legislature garnering the most attention is a reduction in what cities and counties will collect on homesteaded property. (Note: The Legislature revised DeSantis’ proposal, which would have also reduced taxes that support schools. So the new rules would not apply to school taxes.)
Winter Park City Hall
Winter Park collected $19.8 million in 2025 from homesteaded properties. If voters approve the proposed increase to the homestead exemption from $50,000 today to $250,000 in 2028 then those collections would drop to about $14.2 million, according to Randolph’s projections. The reduction would first be felt, to a lesser extent, by cities and counties in 2027 when the homestead exemption would jump to to $150,000 before increasing to the full $250,000 the following year.
So that’s a loss of $5.6 million based on today’s numbers or a 28% reduction in collections on homesteaded properties. The overall hit to the city’s tax roll appears closer to 12% because stormwater fees ($6.3 million), tangible property taxes ($1 million on equipment and furnishings in businesses or rental properties) and non-homesteaded property taxes ($21.2 million) aren’t affected by the change to homestead exemptions.
How big of a deal is that $5.6 million loss?
Well, thumb through this year’s Winter Park budget and you can get an idea of what $5.6 million means in real terms:
- This year the city spent $5 million more just to cover basic cost-of-living and 3% merit raises for city staff, including more competitive wages for police and additional emergency call center staff as the city took on dispatch duties for Maitland.
- The entire capital improvement budget for the Community Development Agency, which is funded entirely through property taxes, totaled $5.7 million. That included $3.2 million to fix drainage and infrastructure problems on West Fairbanks Avenue, Canton Avenue and the MLK Park basin. Another $2.5 million went to the Park Avenue Refresh project, which includes new street lighting, sidewalks, landscaping, underground infrastructure and other work.
- The rebuilding of Fire Station 62 on Lakemont Avenue is estimated at $5.8 million, a project the city put off again this year because it didn’t have the funds.
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio predicted noticeable cuts will be made if the new proposal goes into effect.
“This will be devastating,” DeCiccio said after the Legislature’s vote. “We will be assessing what services the city may have to cut.”
The entire city budget is $233 million this year. That includes the two utilities that fund themselves with a combined nearly $100 million in what customers pay for water and electric service.
Beyond that, the single biggest source of revenue for the city is property taxes.
Those taxes are the biggest contributor to the city’s almost $90 million general fund, which is responsible for all of the front-line services like police and fire rescue (the two biggest expenses), parks and recreation and public works.
“Property taxes are continuing to row the boat for the city’s fiscal picture, rising 7.6% and accounting for 44% of General Fund revenue,” reads the budget document from last year. “This stabilizing force is what keeps most city services humming. Its rate of growth is sufficient to support the existing level of city services, but it is limited in what it can provide in excess of just staying on course.”
So is that all?
No. There’s more. The ballot amendment would also hamstring cities and counties by limiting future growth in the amount of taxes collected on non-homesteaded properties.
The cap on annual assessment increases for those properties — anything from a Publix grocery store to an Amazon warehouse to a vacation home — would drop from 10% to 5%.
That represents future savings for billion-dollar corporations and less future revenue for local governments to use for police, fire rescue, roads and everything else property taxes pay for.
Growth in property values is how a city like Winter Park, which has enjoyed a brisk real estate market for years, has managed to increase its budget without raising the tax rate for 18 years.
A little more than half of the city’s total ad valorem collections or about $21.2 million come from non-homesteaded properties owned by everyone from small business owners to deep-pocketed corporations who will save money as a result of the new cap.
The exact amount of future unrealized growth is hard to quantify, city officials say.
But this chart from the budget shows the importance of the increase in assessed values year to year: 
But even before the new ballot amendment was in play, city officials were beginning to warn of a softening in that growth and the need for belt-tightening.
“The General Fund is seeing continued increases in property tax revenue due to increasing valuations in existing real estate which has traditionally been the primary support of the majority of the growth in revenues over time,” the budget reads. “However, this revenue source is continuing its slowing trend and could indicate tighter years ahead.”
If approved, the new cap will exacerbate that picture.
What else does the ballot amendment do?
In addition to reducing revenue cities and counties have to work with, the measure would also restrict how that money is spent.
Property taxes would only be able to pay for items that fall in one of the following buckets, according to a Senate press release:
- Public safety, including law enforcement, fire service, and emergency medical service
- Education and public schools (additional funds beyond operational expenses covered by school board taxes)
- Road and bridge construction and maintenance, stormwater control, and other infrastructure projects
- Natural resource projects, including flood control measures
- Retirement benefits of local government employees
- Bond obligations
- Operations and administration of county officers and commissioners and municipalities, and approved expenditures
Assistant City Manager Michelle del Valle, who will be in the top role next year when the changes begin to take effect after City Manager Randy Knight retires, said city staff is already starting to assess what may or may not fit into those categories. Some items in question, she said, are considered core services that residents have come to expect.
“The biggest one that we’re going to have to start working on is Parks and Recreation,” she said. “But also the library … all of our cultural partnerships.”
The Winter Park Library & Events Center.
This year the Parks budget is nearly $15 million. The city spent about $2.4 million on its library this year. And more than $500,000 went to cultural and nonprofit organizations through the general fund and the CRA such as Mead Botanical Gardens, Winter Park Historical Association, Winter Park Day Nursery, United Arts, Blue Bamboo, Polasek Museum, Enzian Theater, Heritage Center, Welbourne Day Nursery and Winter Park Playhouse.
DeCiccio said the attempt to cut local budgets is an extension of a longstanding effort by Tallahassee to chip away at the power of local governments.
“Where are people supposed to go?” DeCiccio asked. “Are they supposed to go to the state to complain about potholes in the roads? It’s very, very frustrating.”
The proposed ballot amendment, she said, strips voters of a layer of autonomy and accountability to closest to where they live.
It’s more often the city and county commissioners vs. state officials who run into residents at the grocery store or in the school pick-up line and hear their frustrations about uneven sidewalks or broken streetlights, a desire for more shade trees or a plea to help the arts.
“What about libraries? What about playgrounds? They are taking away our ability to fund these items,” DeCiccio said. “We have the No. 1 children’s library in the state that’s now open seven days a week. How are we going to keep paying for that?”
What can cities do in response?
Even before the proposal to cut property taxes, cities like Winter Park began raising prices on everything from after-school programs run by the parks department to stormwater fees and electric rates to compensate for rising costs in recent years.
For example, at the most recent City Commission meeting, commissioners approved a contract extension for Waste Pro, which provides garbage collection. The city doesn’t make money off the contract — it’s a pass through — but residents’ monthly rates have shot up from $14.99 in 2022 to $22.22 in 2025.
And residents could pay more in other ways.
Cities and counties could choose to increase the millage rate on properties — something Winter Park has avoided for 18 years — to blunt the effect of the proposed changes.
“If county and municipal governments raise millage rates to recoup the lost revenue, that would result in higher property taxes on the portion of the value of homestead properties that remains taxable, as well as on the many properties that do not qualify for the substantially higher exemption, including the properties of new Florida residents and second homeowners, commercial properties (including apartment complexes), and industrial and agricultural properties,” reads an analysis from the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation. “This would make Florida’s property tax system far less neutral and disincentivize the purchase of certain classes of property.”
Or, the foundation argues, policymakers could choose to increase the sales tax to help make up for lost property taxes.
“Since Florida’s tax structure includes no individual income tax, sales taxes and property taxes are the primary sources of state and local tax revenue,” the group said. “Replacing the lost property tax revenue with sales tax revenue would require substantially higher local and/or state sales tax rates, a sweeping expansion of the sales tax base (likely to more than just final personal consumption), or a combination of these approaches.”
Winter Park doesn’t set the sales tax or the local gas tax. That’s done by a combination of state and county officials. But it does share in sales and gas tax revenue, though that revenue is far less than property tax revenue for the city.
Winter Park’s 2026 budget included $5.6 million from sales tax and just under $1 million from the local option gas tax, a fraction of the more than $41 million it received in property taxes.
What happens next?
As with any ballot amendment, there is likely to be litigation and fights over the ballot language.
But once it makes the November ballot, at least 60% of voters must approve it in order for it to pass. That’s a heavy lift in Florida.
In 2024, there were six constitutional amendments on the Florida ballot and all but two failed to capture the required 60% approval. That was the year an amendment to legalize recreational marijuana and to limit government interference with abortion received 56% and 57% of the vote, respectively, but fell short of the 60% threshold.
But an amendment related to property tax exemptions passed with 66% of the vote. It provided for an annual inflation adjustment for the value of the homestead property tax exemption that applies to non-school taxes.
Two years earlier, though, a 2022 amendment to increase the homestead exemption for public service workers including teachers, law enforcement officers and others failed with 59% of the vote.
What about Winter Park’s next budget?
City officials say they still plan to present a proposed budget to the City Commission in July on the typical schedule.
The next budget is based on the 2026 tax roll and would not be impacted by the proposed changes, which aren’t set to take effect until next year if they win voter approval.
But officials say they are cognizant of what potentially lies ahead and are taking that into account.
At the recent commission meeting, for example, DeCiccio balked at spending a few thousand dollars on a historic preservation consultant, at least for now, because of the potential cuts.
The City Commission usually begins to hear public input on the budget in August and must adopt it by the end of September before the start of the next fiscal year in October.
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by Beth Kassab | May 29, 2026 | City Commission, News, Police and Public Safety, Taxes
Downtown Security Barriers and Mead Gardens Pond Cleanup Land in State Budget
Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he expects to veto a number of projects but local lawmakers argue the money for two Winter Park line items should be spared
May 30, 2026
By Gabrielle Russon
The city of Winter Park is slated to get state money to help clean up Central Florida’s waterways and beef up security for public outdoor events as the Legislature approved the 2026-27 budget Friday.
State lawmakers passed a $114.5 billion spending plan that provides $500,000 for a Mead Gardens water project and $62,500 for Winter Park Police road barriers to keep vehicles from driving into crowds at festivals and other events.
Lawmakers inserted the pair of Winter Park projects into the state budget after they met behind closed doors this month to negotiate spending on everything from school funding, law enforcement and members’ pet projects during a special session this month.
The Legislature had failed to approve a budget — their only constitutional required job — during the 60-day regular session that ended in March.
Even though the Legislature approved the budget Friday, the money is not official for Winter Park until it survives Gov. Ron DeSantis’ veto pen.
DeSantis has been clear he wants to trim spending.
“It’s probably a safe assumption that when I’m done with my veto pen that it’ll be less than the current year budget,” DeSantis said this week about the next fiscal year starting July 1.
DeSantis also is open about how he weaponizes his veto power to punish lawmakers who don’t support his agenda.
“If the members are supporting good policy, then, you know, I see their budget items, that’s just something you take into account,” DeSantis said earlier this month at The Federalist Society.
Winter Park officials declined to comment for this story as they await DeSantis’ spending decisions, but the state lawmakers who advocated for the Winter Park project spoke to The Voice about why they feel the money is important.
Mead Gardens Pond Flows to Chain of Lakes
State lawmakers want to tackle cleaning up waterways by lowering nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus that cause algae booms and destroy biodiversity.
In the state budget, Winter Park would receive $500,000 to filter the excessive nutrients from Alice’s Pond in Mead Gardens as the Loch Haven Chain of Lakes flows into the Winter Park Chain of Lakes.
The funding request is a bipartisan effort from an influential Republican, state Sen. Jason Brodeur, and Democrat state Rep. Anna Eskamani. The two have a history of collaborating on water projects even though they are on opposite ends of the political spectrum.
“The Winter Park Chain of Lakes, its health impacts the health of all lakes in Central Florida,” Eskamani said.
Their project seeks to improve water quality throughout the interconnected lake systems of Winter Park and Maitland which are the headwaters to Lake Jesup and the St. Johns River, Florida’s longest river.
“People live on these water bodies and they’ve been there long enough to remember when it was actually a place you might actually want to swim or boat,” said Brodeur who grew up on Lake Jesup. “It gets gross because it gets overgrown with weeds and things that don’t belong there because the balance is out of whack with its nutrient load.”
Central Florida’s waterways play a big role in Florida’s ecosystem since three of the water management districts come together, Brodeur said.
“If a drop of rain falls somewhere in Central Florida, it could end up in Fort Myers, it could end up in the Everglades, it could end up in Jacksonville,” Brodeur said.
Keeping the waters clean is important to support local businesses and tourism because of a long list of water recreational activities, such as paddle boarding, rowing and boating, Eskamani added.
Street Barriers Would Help Protect Outdoor Crowds
Last year the city of Winter Park received $62,500 for the road barriers and now an additional $62,500 is included in the 2026-27 budget.
In the state House, Rep. David Smith sought the money both times even though Winter Park isn’t even in his district — Smith lives in Seminole County.
“One of the reasons that I supported the appropriation request not only last year but this year is, the city of Winter Park hosts a lot of street festivals,” Smith said. “So if we’re going to spend state money to protect pedestrians against a potential attack, that’s a legitimate use of state tax dollars.”
Each spring tens of thousands of people attend the three-day Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival. Other popular events include charity runs down Park Avenue, beloved parades and more.
“Who doesn’t love the Winter Park Arts Festival?” said Brodeur, who handled the local funding request in the upper chamber. “We got people from all five surrounding counties driving in. We want to make sure they’re safe for events like that.”
Brodeur called the police barriers an important investment in the context of the region’s tourism industry.
“Very frequently people have the mindset, or at least local municipalities have the mindset that ‘We want this really cool toy, we’ll just ask the state for it,’” Brodeur said. “The state funding should be state taxpayers paying for something of regional interest. Now because Winter Park has so many events that draw so many from all over Central Florida and the whole state, this is a safety issue of regional interest.”
As he talked about the water clean up and police barriers, Brodeur also revived an argument that’s been debated in Central Florida for years. Should taxpayer money fund these projects? Or should tourists foot those bills with revenue from Orange County’s hotel tax?
“Should we expand what we can spend tourist development tax on? If the tourists that we’re bringing in and doing all these things for are the ones that are lining the coffers, shouldn’t we be doing more things for our residents besides expanding the convention center?” Brodeur said.
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by Beth Kassab | Feb 19, 2026 | City Commission, News, Taxes
Slash Reserves and Services? Annex Maitland? Winter Park Mulls Answers to Property Tax Cuts
The (some not so serious) suggestions came in response to Legislative proposals to dramatically reduce city revenue and recommendations from Florida DOGE to eliminate some cities
Feb. 19, 2026
By Beth Kassab
The Florida House voted Thursday to ask voters to eliminate all property taxes — except those that fund schools — for people who live in their homes, but the Senate has yet to take up a plan.
With just three weeks left in the regular legislative session, Gov. Ron DeSantis signaled Thursday morning that he is in no hurry to finalize a proposal that must be approved by 60% of voters to take effect.
“Given that it can’t be voted on by the people before November, it’s better to do it right than do it quick!” the governor posted on X.
State leaders could call a special session after the annual 60-day lawmaking period ends March 13 to address property tax cuts or other unfinished matters.
The uncertainty over the future of their most important and flexible revenue stream has local governments such as Winter Park contemplating a bleak future if the cuts become reality.
“We’re losing people. We’re losing quality of life. We’re losing services,” Commissioner Kris Cruzada said last week as the City Commission heard staff projections. “You call down to City Hall, and you may not get a live person to deal with an issue.”
A city of Winter Park chart shows how property taxes flow into city services.
Peter Moore, director of the city’s Office of Management and Budget, presented an analysis projecting a $250 million loss over 11 years if a proposal like the one adopted by the House on Thursday is ultimately approved by voters.
While the House proposal aims to protect police and fire funding by prohibiting local governments from cutting those departments, it would impede the city’s ability to expand public safety and meet other local needs, including parks, roads, building permits and inspections, code enforcement, storm-related tree trimming, after-school programs, and playing fields for youth and adult sports leagues.
“This would call into question our ability to grow, and in the past we’ve had plans to expand our police and fire personnel. Those things are certainly not possible under scenarios like this,” he said. “It also implies that any government service that’s not public safety isn’t important.”
The tax repeal proposals address only those paid by property owners with homestead exemptions — those who live in their homes as a primary residence. That means people who own second homes, businesses, commercial properties or rental houses would likely face a higher, shifting tax burden that could be passed along to tenants in the form of higher rent.
“The part that bothers me the most,” Moore told the commission, “is that those who deserve the greatest voice in government — our local citizens — are not going to be contributing anything to it. And — this is tongue-in-cheek, and we don’t mean it — but we would be financially better off as a city if we really upset our citizens, they all left, sold their homes to BlackRock and let them be rented out as an Airbnb. Then we could at least pay for roads.”
Property taxes assessed on homesteaded property make up about $19 million — roughly half of the city’s annual property tax revenue — and more than 20% of total annual revenue, according to Moore.
Commissioner Warren Lindsey called the proposals “objectively one of the greatest threats, certainly since I’ve lived in Winter Park for 35 years.”
DeSantis and other state leaders have argued the proposals are driven by the need to make life more affordable for Floridians as government spending and waste have spiraled out of control.
But city officials across the state argue that state spending is ballooning at the same rate as local governments because both are affected by inflation and higher costs of goods and services, especially wages for police officers and firefighters.
Moore said the city’s general fund spent about $70 million in 2024, up from about $43 million in 2015 — an annualized growth rate of about 5.6%. The state of Florida increased spending during that same period from $30 billion to $50 billion, or about a 5.7% annual growth rate.
City officials also took exception to some of the characterizations and recommendations in the recently released “Report on Local Government Spending” by DeSantis’ Florida DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency.
The report calls out 13 cities and counties, including Orange County, for what it describes as “excessive spending.”
“Property taxes are an expense that is entirely within the control of governments to rein in, and by ending the era of irresponsible spending, Florida and its local governments can give Florida’s homeowners freedom from this burden,” the report states.
The 98-page report is part financial audit and part ideological playbook outlining what the governor considers appropriate local government activities.
In the recommendations section, the unnamed authors predicted their proposals “will spark opposition.”
“Bureaucracies entrench themselves and create stakeholders who will argue that stronger oversight threatens ‘home rule,’ disrupts operations, risks federal funding or undermines public servants,” the report states. “They will highlight some recipient who benefits from every expenditure of public funds — ignoring that every dollar spent must also be taken from a taxpayer who is thereby harmed.”
The recommendations include giving Florida’s chief financial officer more power over local governments and standardizing local budgeting processes and wages, including freezing hiring and pay levels for city and county employees.
The report also says the state should forbid the use of government funds, facilities or communications to promote diversity, equity and inclusion concepts such as “social justice” or “systemic bias,” along with any phrases “that rely on the concept that mankind is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously, or bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by others based on race, sex or related characteristics.”
In addition, the report recommends changing state law so that state and local governments cannot enforce “green energy” or other “climate initiatives.”
The recommendation that drew the most pushback from Winter Park officials included a proposal to cap city reserve, or rainy day, funds at 10%.
After Hurricane Charley in 2004, Winter Park adopted a policy calling for reserves to stand at about 30%.
Winter Park’s reserve fund is about 27% today, or roughly $23 million.
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio said the funds are used to respond quickly to flooding and power outages before state and federal emergency reimbursements arrive.
Cruzada said the state is essentially telling local governments to be “irresponsible” and rely on state and federal assistance rather than manage their own affairs.
“What the state is doing is limiting our ability to raise revenue but, at the same time, reducing our reserves and it’s practically — for lack of a better term — telling us to be irresponsible,” he said.
An image created in jest by city staff to bring some levity to the property tax discussion shows City Manager Randy Knight and Assistant City Manager Michelle del Valle on a quest to annex Maitland, which is not actually under consideration at this time, though the Florida DOGE report recommended some cities should consolidate.
The report’s final recommendation calls for some cities to disappear entirely and be absorbed by larger neighboring cities or counties.
“Florida should review the 411 municipalities for potential opportunities to provide local government services more efficiently through abolition or consolidation, with particular attention paid to small municipalities and highly urbanized counties,” the report states.
That prompted another tongue-in-cheek response from Winter Park officials, who joked about annexing neighboring Maitland.
Moore pointed to what he called a “curious note” in the report suggesting that “perhaps there are too many cities.”
He then showed an AI-generated image of City Manager Randy Knight and Assistant City Manager Michelle del Valle dressed in Colonial-era attire “crossing Howell Creek to invade our neighbors to the north.”
“Never to not be a team player, we are willing to do this,” Moore said, drawing laughter from the chamber.
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by Beth Kassab | Dec 18, 2025 | Arts and Culture, City Commission, Taxes, Uncategorized
Arts Board Backs Off Seven Oaks Sculptures Because of Spending Optics
The decision came this week just days before state CFO Blaise Ingoglia held a press conference in Winter Park on Thursday to call city governments “wasteful”
Dec. 18, 2025
By Beth Kassab
Winter Park’s Public Art Advisory Board this week hit the pause button on spending as much as $175,000 on permanent sculptures for Seven Oaks Park after City Manager Randy Knight appeared at the meeting to warn of bad optics and even a potential budget shortfall if Gov. Ron DeSantis is successful in his drive to reduce property taxes.
“Is that something we’d be criticized for?” Knight asked of the potential expenditure. “Should we wait and see what’s coming before we decide to spend that kind of money on public art?”
The decision by the board, which includes new Commissioner-elect Elizabeth Ingram, is evidence of a chilling effect on local governments brought by the DeSantis administration’s attacks on local spending and threat to significantly decrease local tax revenue.
Without mentioning Winter Park a single time, state Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, who is running for re-election, held a press conference in the city on Thursday morning.
A city graphic shows the proposed location of artwork in Seven Oaks Park.
He repeatedly called cities and counties “wasteful” of public dollars, particularly money collected through property taxes.
But he didn’t cite any examples of cities with bloated budgets that he attributed, in large part, to hiring more staff that far exceeded a city’s need based on its population.
Ingoglia announced a proposal for a new law that would require cities and counties to post their budgets online (which is already required by state law) and to post proposed budget amendments seven days in advance of the hearing. His proposal also would require local governments to identify at least 10% worth of cuts as part of the budget process, though fire and police could not be part of those reductions.
He said the law change would prohibit cities from considering if a business is minority or women-owned when handing out contracts.
Ingoglia called for the end of “the practice of DEI in contracts,” which he said stands for “division, exclusion and indoctrination.”
“Stop with this crap,” he said.
Ingoglia’s office did not immediately respond to a question from the Voice about why the event was held in Winter Park.
The plan for the Seven Oaks Park sculptures came about as part of the city’s public art initiative to promote culture and visitation in Winter Park’s newest public space, which opened earlier this year.
Winter Park is known as one of the top tourism draws in the region and logged 1.4 million visitors to the downtown in 2024.
A plan to bring rotating loaned artwork from Orange County to the park in January is still underway. But the board hit the brakes on purchasing new art to remain in the park permanently.
Arts Board Chairwoman Carolyn Fennell thanked Knight for the information and guidance and noted that the city should “maintain its arts and cultural branding.”
“We all know the importance of arts in our city but others looking in may not have the same value of art as you do or certainly as we do as a community,” Knight said during the meeting.
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by Beth Kassab | Nov 19, 2025 | Arts and Culture, News, Taxes
With Partner Gone, Blue Bamboo Works to Push Ahead on Arts Project in Old Library
The music venue received approval to keep $900,000 of its original grant from the Orange County Arts & Cultural Affairs Advisory Council
Nov. 19, 2025
By Beth Kassab
There are still plenty of questions about who or what will replace a key partner that walked away from the Blue Bamboo project to transform Winter Park’s old library into an arts hub.
In a memorandum to Orange County’s Arts & Cultural Affairs Advisory Council last week, Blue Bamboo’s new leader listed 10 arts nonprofits as “examples of prospective tenants.”
But none of the groups contacted by the Voice — from the Orlando Gay Chorus to Orlando Fringe, Central Florida Community Arts, and Rollins College — said they were in discussions to take on permanent space in the three-story building.
Founder Chris Cortez performs at the Blue Bamboo last month in his final concert there.
Jeff Flowers, a chemist and arts philanthropist who served two stints on the Maitland City Council, recently took over day-to-day operations of the music venue after founder Chris Cortez was diagnosed with brain cancer and stepped away.
“I’m holding my nose above water,” he said of the many aspects of the project he has had to pick up on short notice.
Flowers said he is in talks with a couple of potential tenants but declined to name them. He has not yet reached out to the organizations listed as examples in the memorandum he provided to the advisory council when he won approval last week to retain most of the $1 million grant awarded to the original project last year.
Under revised terms, the new grant amount is $900,000 and will likely be disbursed in two payments, he said, after the project reaches certain milestones and provides documentation for construction and other expenses.
Central Florida Vocal Arts, which stages a variety of musicals and operas, was originally slated to occupy the second floor and help Blue Bamboo pay the rent on the building as well as raise the $500,000 in matching funds required by the grant, which comes from the Tourist Development Tax collected on hotel rooms in Orange County.
CFVA withdrew from the project after Executive Director Theresa Smith-Levin said she was unable to reach a lease agreement with Blue Bamboo.
Blue Bamboo will now be responsible for raising $450,000 in matching funds under the new grant terms.
The organization currently pays the city $132,000 a year in rent for the building, an amount scheduled to rise to $276,000 next year.
Flowers said he hopes to secure tenants for the building along with shared spaces for costume design, lighting fabrication, recording suites, back-office support, and more. He added that he still has time to solidify those plans.
“Our revised leasing plan will allow a more diverse group of subleases to support the ongoing costs in our master lease, and the Shared Space plan will provide a new income stream that is responsive to the expressed needs of the community it serves. Finally, our capital campaign efforts will integrate Blue Bamboo into the local business community to ensure continued financial support,” Flowers wrote in the memo to the county.
Flowers is not only a longtime supporter of the venue and now its leader, but also the person who loaned Blue Bamboo money for the initial round of construction and other expenses needed to open this summer in the old library building.
He said he has loaned the project about $1 million so far.
“I’m going to make sure this project succeeds,” he said.
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by Beth Kassab | Nov 14, 2025 | County News, News, Taxes
Rosen Hotels Leader Calls for Tourist Transportation Tax to Boost SunRail, Lynx
Frank Santos, who lives in Winter Park, says out-of-state visitors would pay for the upgrades as an added tax on hotel bills
Nov. 14, 2025
By Beth Kassab
Frank Santos wanted to make SunRail work as his daily commute.
The chief executive officer of Rosen Hotels & Resorts had a lot in his favor. He lives just three blocks from the Winter Park station. On his morning walk to the train he often stopped at Croissant Gourmet on Morse Boulevard for coffee and, occasionally, a pastry.
He spent the ride to his office near International Drive reading the day’s news or getting work done — something impossible to do behind the wheel on Interstate 4.
Santos even devised a system for when he arrived at SunRail’s Sand Lake Road Station, the closest stop to his office overlooking the golf course at Rosen Shingle Creek. He left a car there Monday through Friday to cover the last 15 minutes or so of his trip.
But after about a year, he stopped taking SunRail.
“It was just complicated,” he said. He called his experiment with Central Florida’s underfunded and incomplete mass transit system largely worthwhile — even enjoyable at times — but one that underscored how the region is built around the door-to-door convenience of cars.
“I would do it again if I could get closer to my office,” he said.
Winter Park’s SunRail station is one of the commuter train system’s busiest.
It’s been about five years since he stopped his regular SunRail commute. Since then, he has helped guide his company, which operates seven hotels, through the COVID pandemic and, last year, the death of founder Harris Rosen.
But this week he found himself reflecting on those train rides and what he sees as untapped potential for Central Florida to finally build a mass transit system that works for more people.
Santos acknowledged that any inconvenience he experienced on SunRail, or the gridlock he faces routinely on I-4, is small compared to what some of his employees endure. Many Rosen Hotels workers and others who earn their livelihoods as restaurant servers, ride attendants, desk clerks, housekeepers, and groundskeepers rely on the Lynx bus system and spend hours on buses each day.
“We need our employees to get to work faster,” he said. “My employees take up to two hours to get to work.”
That’s why an idea he has tossed around since 1999 now has a name: the Tourist Transportation Tax.
It would be paid only by out-of-state tourists on their hotel bills, and the revenue would be used exclusively for transportation needs such as extending SunRail to Orlando International Airport and the Convention Center and, for the first time, providing a dedicated funding source for Lynx so it can add buses and increase route frequency.
The proposal is gaining interest across the state, including in Winter Park.
Winter Park Mayor Sheila DeCiccio said she shares many of the same goals: extending SunRail service to weekends, which could reduce traffic during major events such as the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival, and improving bus service.
Winter Park was SunRail’s second-busiest station last year with 124,000 riders, according to system statistics. Only the Lynx Central Station stop in downtown Orlando had more, with 138,000 passengers.
“We offered to pay for the train to run on the weekend and they wouldn’t do it,” DeCiccio said. “We want the train to run in and out of the airport. We want the buses to run better. Those are exactly the kinds of things I’ll be looking for in a plan.”
DeCiccio’s comments came after joining about 200 people who listened to Santos’ proposal — as well as a plan by Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, who wants to change how existing hotel-room tax dollars are spent — at an Orange County League of Women Voters luncheon this week.
The discussion turned tense at times, with Santos arguing that Guillermo Smith’s statements about the Lynx budget were misleading and stepping in to defend the tourism industry, which he noted already contributes heavily to roads, schools, parks, and other essential services as the top property taxpayers in Orange County.
Walt Disney Company, Universal Studios, Marriott Resorts, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, and SeaWorld regularly appear on the county’s Top 10 list of property taxpayers, according to the property appraiser’s records.
Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat, was especially critical of the public dollars allocated to Visit Orlando for marketing hotels and attractions. The quasi-public tourism bureau was the subject of a recent county audit that questioned its expenditures.
Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith. Frank Santos pictured at top of page.
“I think $105 million in public money to Visit Orlando is an insane amount to give when we have so many community challenges,” he said. “We know that tourism is a huge economic driver in our region. … But we also have to acknowledge that tourists place a large strain on our community’s resources.”
Santos defended the spending.
“The senator doesn’t understand the cost of doing business,” he said. “We spend $40 million a year on sales and marketing at Rosen Hotels. Coming out of COVID, everyone understands the cost of doing business has increased.”
How much of the current 6% tax on hotel stays should be devoted to tourism marketing, the convention center, and other industry needs — versus helping local residents — has long been debated in Central Florida.
The difference this time is that someone from the tourism industry is proposing a new solution instead of simply guarding the existing 6%, which generated $385 million last year.
Santos still wants to protect that 6 cents on the dollar collected by hotels. But he wants to add another 1 to 4 cents dedicated to transportation.
Right now, he explained, guests pay 12.5% in taxes on hotel bills: 6% in Tourist Development Tax and 6.5% in sales tax.
Other popular destinations charge more. Chicago charges 17.3%. Austin charges 17%. New Orleans charges 16.2%. New York charges 14.75%.
“We could go as high as another four cents,” he said.
The steady revenue stream provided by the tax could be leveraged to finance major projects through bonds. One extra cent could generate nearly $350 million in bonding capacity, according to projections.
This table projects what different tax rates would generate each year and the capacity to bond against that revenue to fund projects. Source: Policy memorandum on Santos’ proposal
Importantly, hotels would exempt visitors with Florida driver’s licenses from paying the tax, meaning out-of-state visitors would fund the upgrades.
Santos needs the proposal to pass the Legislature and then win voter approval in a referendum. He says he has begun speaking with more tourism leaders to build support.
Without naming names, he said some organizations have encouraged him to continue pushing. At least one major group has suggested increasing the sales tax to fund transit — an idea backed by Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings that failed at the ballot in 2022.
Harris Rosen himself supported Santos’ plan before his death about a year ago, Santos said.
So he plans to keep talking, keep meeting, and keep spreading the word about the region’s needs.
One way he wants to do that is through another experiment. He plans to ride Lynx from a neighborhood where many workers live to his hotels on and near International Drive so he can better understand their challenges.
“I want to do it during the morning,” he said. “I plan to ride the bus from Pine Hills to my office.”
At the end of the day, he’ll face a familiar problem for any transit user in a car-centric region.
“And then I’ll find a way to get back home,” he said.
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