For years, I’ve argued that Orange County should start using some of the piles of hotel taxes it collects each year on much-needed roads, buses and public safety — instead of pouring most all of it into never-ending expansions to the convention center and more tourism promotion efforts.
Yet Central Florida’s tourism lobby has always vehemently disagreed.
Now, however, that appears to be changing.
Frank Santos, the new CEO of Rosen Hotels & Resorts — the largest independent hotel chain in the state — says he’s backing a proposal to raise Orange County’s 6% tax on hotel rooms by 1 to 4 percentage points to pay for sorely needed transit and transportation projects.
“We have some serious issues in this community,” Santos said this week. “And our visitors could help us address some of them.”
That’s exactly what should happen — as it already does in other communities. It’s about lowering the tax burden for residents, because every hotel-tax dollar Orange County spends on transportation is one less tax dollar it must collect from residents.
To be clear, I’ve never argued for higher hotel taxes. With Orange County’s existing 6% tax on hotel rooms already generating more than $360 million annually, I think there’s plenty of existing money to go around.
But Santos, who noted that Orange County’s hotel tax rate is one of the lowest in the nation among big metros, said he believes all the existing spending on tourism promotion is needed. So he’d rather ask Florida lawmakers to let counties decide for themselves if they’d like to raise additional taxes, which could generate even more money than siphoning off a small chunk would.
I give Santos a lot of credit for addressing this issue. It’s way overdue. Four decades ago, tourism leaders in Las Vegas realized their industry needed to do more to help its community.
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Tourists, after all, bring lots of money to the communities they visit. But they also bring burdens and costs. They clog our roads. They drink our water. They get arrested and victimized, requiring police attention.
So way back in the 1980s, Vegas hotel and casino leaders helped lead a campaign to redirect hotel taxes to local needs. Ever since, Vegas has used hotel taxes to pay everything from schools and parks to roads and rail.
But in Orlando, tourism leaders have never been willing to follow suit. Until now.
A brief prepared by Rosen’s government-affairs firm, Central Florida Strategies, said: “With Central Florida and other regions straining to support ever-growing visitor volumes, it’s time to consider a proactive solution to modernize the tourist tax for the 21st century.”
Amen.
Santos may be the new CEO at Rosen Resorts after the company’s legendary founder, Harris Rosen, passed away last year. But Santos is no newbie. He worked at Rosen’s side for decades as his CFO and, much like his mentor, is a philanthropist who supports many local charities.
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Some might be cynical of this tax-hiking proposal, wondering if it’s a way for Orlando’s hotel industry to act like it’s trying to support local needs while counting on the tax-loathing Republicans who run Tallahassee to shut it down. It certainly seems like it’d be easier to ask these conservative politicians to allow flexible spending on existing hotel-tax usage than for permission to raise taxes.
But Santos, who has already pitched his idea to County Mayor Jerry Demings and other county officials, says he’s both genuine in his push and also optimistic, especially since the proposal also calls for exempting Florida residents from paying the additional tax. “I thought it was another way to get it passed,” he said.
That aspect of the plan, only allowing an exemption to some customers, might face some logistical and legal hurdles. But it should be popular in principle.
To get into the specifics, only counties that want to raise the taxes would do so. And all the new money would support transportation projects that also impact tourism corridors. But that could still be a huge financial boon for locals. If hotel taxes, for example, pay for a new SunRail spur between the airport and International Drive, that means local taxpayers wouldn’t have to.
Each penny would generate about $60 million annually with the policy brief saying the impact “would be significant and immediate in Florida’s major tourism markets, while remaining painless for local taxpayers.”
Even when the county’s sales tax of 6.5% is added to it’s 6% hotel tax, Orange County’s total room-tax rate of 12.5% ranks 115th among major American cities, according to a Lodging Tax Study by HVS hospitality consultants.
That’s well behind places like St. Louis (where it’s 25%), New Orleans (18.2%), Chicago (17.4%) and slightly behind Las Vegas (13.4%).
Basically, when you visit other places, you pay more. But when people come here, they get off cheaper — while this community’s problems fester.
I don’t know what will happen with this plan. There are a lot of i’s to dot, t’s to cross and politicians to lobby. And the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association didn’t respond to questions about whether it supports the idea, which isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, yet also typical of that organization.
So while I don’t know what the future holds, I do know I appreciate that an influential tourism leader in this community is finally talking seriously about this issue.
smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com
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https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/09/24/orlando-rosen-resorts-backs-new-tax/
