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🏖️ A new Florida bill could cut property taxes by 40% in Okaloosa County by eliminating tourism development funding.
💼 Local leaders warn that losing tourism tax dollars could damage the economy, public services, and thousands of jobs.
🚢 Projects like the SS United States Artificial Reef will move forward if already contracted, but future related initiatives could be defunded.
A bill in the Florida House could end how the Emerald Coast and the entire state of Florida support its tourism industry. It could, in the short term at least, lower your property taxes – but, experts warn, it could have devastating effects on the entire state’s tourism economy and the Emerald Coast.
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Earlier this year, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that lowering property taxes throughout the state was his priority.
Now, the House and the Senate have passed their versions of HB 1221. The companion bill, which Panama City Republican Senator Jay Trumbull introduced in the Senate, would shut down the 62 county Tourism Development Councils throughout Florida.
We reached out to the offices of Representative Maney and Senator Trumbull for comment on Friday, April 25. When or if they respond, we will put their statements here.
It would also take all of the hotel bed tax (the taxes collected from hotels and short-term rentals) from the counties and use them to reduce property tax levies in the counties.
Opponents of the move say using tourism development money to fund a property tax deduction that Tourism Development District Officials say would equal about $68 for the average homeowner every year could devastate local economies from Key West to Cantonment.
Based on the fiscal year budget from Okaloosa County, available on their website, if every red cent from the Okaloosa Tourism Tax in 2024 was used to reduce the $100 million in Ad Valoreum (property) taxes Okaloosa County collects the same year, The County would still need to collect $60.5 million in property taxes in order to make ends meet-about a 40% reduction in property taxes.
The median sale price in Okaloosa County was $365,000 for March of 2025, according to real estate company Redfin. Quick math on that number with the Okaloosa Property Appraiser’s Tax Estimator Tool shows that a homesteaded property at that price would currently be charged about $1,200 in county taxes for the year. That means a 40% reduction in costs would work out to about $400 per year.
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Okaloosa County Tourism Development Department Director Jennifer Adams has had a busy week. She and her team have been in react mode ever since the amendment that would gut tourism marketing funding got tacked onto HB 1221 – which initially only shut down tourism development councils in the state’s counties.
In between encouraging her direct reports that they will have jobs and arming advocates like the Okaloosa County Commission with data to fight the Bill, Adams has had just a moment to consider the Bill’s implications for the County.
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“Who’s going to pay for beach cleaning? The residents are. So, I don’t understand the logic of it,” Adams said, “I would like [members of the Florida State Legislature] to know that it was offensive to hear some of the representatives think that state tourism dollars have been misused and misspent in this state. I don’t believe that, speaking from a tourism director who came into a community that you know had some challenges, but over the past eight years, we’ve worked really hard, not just through this office, but through the commissioners and through the community to be sure that we’re spending dollars correctly. “
Adams notes that Visit Destin-Fort Walton Beach brought in almost $50 million in tourism taxes last year alone. While much of the money went to marketing the area to bring in visitors, Adams added that the money also went to pay for essential services used by tourists and locals alike, such as law enforcement, beach safety, and parks and recreation.
All told, Adams and her team estimate that the tourism industry raked in $710 million in visitor spending in 2024. For reference, the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis estimated that Okaloosa County had a gross domestic product (GDP) of almost $18 Billion last year.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports for Okaloosa County indicate that of the 80,000 people actively working in Okaloosa County in 2024, some 25,000 (31%) are employed in Retail, Accommodation and Food Services, and Real Estate—the areas that would be most affected by a tourism economy slowdown.
What happens if the governor signs the Bill? In the short term, the property tax burden would fall on people who own land in the state. Tourism officials say the dip in property tax would work out to about $68 per person in the short term per person per year.
But in the longer term – The correlative drop in tourism revenues caused by travelers choosing to go elsewhere would mean someone somewhere would have to make up the difference. And, tourism officials say, we’d lose the ability to rely on money from tourists to help offset the costs for locals. Tourism is down by five percent year-over-year in Okaloosa County. Other destinations have begun to carve into the rapid growth in market share Florida destinations received by staying open during the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan to pull marketing money, argues Adams, could lead to a funding death spiral where the tourism economies of Florida are gone, and property owners end up holding the bag. She says they’d end up paying full freight for services through property and other locally based taxes.
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“How do you make up for that deficit?” Adams asked rhetorically, “Are we going to let the beaches not be cleaned? Who’s going to put sand on the beach [after] we have a storm? Where’s that money going to come from? Cleaning and maintaining our parks is almost $3 Million a year, [tourism money spent on] public safety is almost $3.2 Million a year. Who’s gonna pay that?”
While Adams theorizes that Destin and Okaloosa Island could see the worst of eliminating the County’s tourism marketing budget, places further north would also feel the pain.
Niceville-Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce Board Chairman Steve Schutt, a mortgage loan officer for Movement Mortgage, notes that a drop in property taxes would help his business in the short run. “In the short term, I think it does help people, depending on how much the property taxes go down,” Schutt said. He laughs when I tell him that Adams expects a $68 per year reduction. The payoff isn’t worth the price. “A lot of people that live in Niceville support with their employment, the tourism industry, whether they are working on the beaches or the restaurants or the stores or the shops or hotels,” Schutt said. He argued that the passage of this Bill would punish the whole system.
Schutt hopes the legislature or the governor will reject the Bill. “I’d like to find out how they think that the things that are being funded right now are going to get funded. It seems like [the government will] take money away from one and give it to something else. But the reality is, having people come here is a big part of funding our economy. So, I just would want to know where’s the money going to come from in the future?”
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Finally – what happens to projects currently underway – Like the SS United States Artificial Reef project?
According to the Bill (you can read the language here), anything that was already funded before the first of January, 2025 has the green light to move forward. But other projects without a contract before that date would be cancelled by the Bill.
So the ship can still be sunk – but ancillary items that don’t have contracts yet – like the conservancy museum or the promotion of the artificial reef and the museum would get the axe. Adams argues that the ship and its museum have already proven their value to the state of Florida and Okaloosa County residents in particular. She says the SS United States saga, as it’s moved from its dock in Philadelphia to Mobile, has already garnered the attention of 6.6 Billion people worldwide. The interest garnered by the ship and the tourists who come here because of it make financial sense in her opinion. “Those aren’t local taxes,” she says.
