his is a pivotal time for the Tourist Development Tax and its use. It involves a lot of money and the Board of County Commissioners will have critical decisions to make about the use of this tax in the upcoming months.

Last fiscal year, we collected $21,344,166.92. This fiscal year, in the first six months, collections are already up 12.2 percent from last year. Decisions on how to spend this money have incredible ramifications for our economic development, which is heavily dependent on tourism.