Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Tourism council asks county to reconsider Chappie James memorial funding after economic-impact study
Summary
The Tourist Development Council directed staff to send a signed letter asking the Board of County Commissioners to reconsider its March decision to fund the General Chappie James memorial plaza with tourist development tax money after an independent study found no tourism-supporting impacts for construction.
The Escambia County Tourist Development Council voted on March 13 to send a signed letter to the Board of County Commissioners asking the commission to reconsider its recent vote to fund the General Chappie James memorial plaza with Tourist Development Tax (TDT) dollars.
The action followed a staff summary of a short Haas Center economic-impact assessment that found the study’s modeled effects were short-term construction impacts and did not show the project, as proposed, would directly and primarily support tourism once built.
The council’s packet and meeting discussion show the county commission at its Feb. 20 meeting voted to fund the plaza’s construction using roughly $750,000 in TDT (bed tax) revenues plus other local funds. TDC members who reviewed the Haas Center summary said the study characterized the economic output as construction-related and did not demonstrate sustained tourism…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
