The Florida Legislature has agreed to let Monroe County leaders spend $25 million in surplus tax revenue to build workforce housing.
Lawmakers in Tallahassee on March 5 unanimously passed House Bill 1456 on a third reading. The bill, which allows specific tax revenue collected by the Monroe County Tourist Development Council (TDC), is now on the way to Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose signature is needed to make it law.
County leaders and staff celebrated the victory, after months of work on the proposed bill.
“Such a great team effort,” wrote Lisa Tennyson, BOCC director of legislative affairs, in an email to county leaders after the House vote. “So many steps and so much work.”
Tourism in the Keys boomed unexpectedly between 2020-2022, when Florida remained open to visitors while destinations in the U.S. and across the world stayed shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s where the extra millions came from.
The unprecedented number of visitors who descended on the Keys pumped up revenues from the 4-cent tax on hotels and other rentals that funds the Monroe County Tourist Development Council (TDC).
Bed tax revenues fund the TDC’s work advertising the Keys as a destination, promoting events to tourists and paying for large construction projects meant to support tourism.
After the county had settled all budget obligations, the TDC surplus was left sitting on the table, County Mayor Holly Raschein said.
During the BOCC’s budget season, commissioner Craig Cates, of Key West, proposed using the TDC’s surplus millions to build housing for Keys workers, as the housing market continues only to soar for renters.
“Workforce housing is our number one issue if you ask me,” Raschein told Keys Weekly on March 5.
A ‘one-time ask’
The bill was filed Jan. 5. County staff had to repeatedly craft the language as it went through House committees.
Monroe County’s legal team wrote provisions in the bill, often late at night to meet deadlines, while the five county commissioners worked to secure the support of each chamber of commerce in the Keys, Tennyson said.
“All of us went to our local chambers,” Raschein said. “I went to Key Largo and Islamorada and explained what we were doing. People were calling it a ‘money grab.’ That is absolutely false. This is a one-time ask.”
Commissioners also went to the Florida Keys Restaurant and Lodging Association to persuade them to not publicly oppose the plan, she said.
The BOCC has said it wants ro reserve the new housing specifically for workers in the service and hospitality industry.
But they haven’t defined the requirements tenants would need to meet. Getting state approval has been the county’s priority since the idea was raised.
“We had to get permission from the state first,” Raschein said.
The bill was written to narrowly constrain distribution of the surplus to a one-time use in Monroe County alone, without larger effects on the other long-standing statutes governing the use of TDC money, commissioner Michelle Lincoln, of Marathon, told Keys Weekly in January.
“For us, it was about educating some of the different places where the bill is stopping,” Lincoln said. “Specific language was actually crafted with the assistance of the president of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association.”
