TDC backs off beach and shoreline cuts
Members of the Lee County Tourist Development Council voted last week to reduce the beach and shoreline fund from 33 percent to about 27 percent of the county’s bed tax.
The TDC gets a one cent bed tax from each dollar tourists pay to stay in local hotels.
But, the reduction was much less than what was agreed on at a Dec. 2 workshop between Lee County Commissioners and TDC members.
At that workshop, they agreed to cut the beach and shoreline funding to 20 percent, which some thought was too severe.
But after public comment from elected officials from Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel, as well as many residents who were opposed to the reduction, TDC members agreed to keeping the funding at about 27 percent and plan to meet again in January when more precise numbers could be developed.
“I think it’s a number that we can live with,” said Beach Town Manager Scott Janke. “If it had gone to 20 percent it would have been really difficult to maintain the beaches.”
The cut comes after an agreement from county commissioners to spend between $70 million and $80 million to build a new stadium for Boston Red Sox spring training games.
Fort Myers Beach Mayor Larry Kiker urged TDC members to rethink the reduction in the fund.
“I guess it’s time to draw a line in the sand,” Kiker said. “I think the line that has to be established is for minimum service levels. We have minimum requirements in order to keep our beaches operational.”
Kiker said he originally was opposed to using bed tax for funding a new Red Sox stadium.
“If the Red Sox is good for Lee County then it is a good thing to do,” he said, adding that he changed his mind after believing the beaches would not suffer. “What I heard you say is that you were going to protect the money for the beaches if we signed up for the Red Sox. I think you should be talking about guarantees. How much money are you going to set aside for beaches? And the rest of it, go ahead and do your allocations and do your percentages, but protect the money for the beaches. What we heard is that you made a promise – you gave your word.”
Janke told TDC members that he wasn’t opposing the new Red Sox stadium, but was concerned that the cut in beach and shoreline funding was in line with maintenance costs associated with beaches.
“There’s not enough money in the budget,” he said. “And my biggest concern is for next year and years down the road.”
Janke said once a proposed beach renourishment project is completed, cost will be considerably higher.
“That will probably double our beach maintenance costs,” he said, adding that proposed new bathrooms at Newton Park will also raise maintenance costs. “When you take out the capital projects, there’s not enough money left to do what’s on the books for maintenance this year alone.”