{"id":330488,"date":"2026-07-06T09:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T09:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/330488\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T09:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T09:29:07","slug":"orange-county-has-nearly-400m-in-tourist-tax-money-but-strict-rules-limit-how-it-can-be-spent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/330488\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange County has nearly $400M in tourist tax money \u2014 but strict rules limit how it can be spent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Law states money has to be used for tourism-related purposes<\/p>\n

Orange County tourism tax dollars see Labor Day boost but final phase of reopening brings uncertainty<\/p>\n

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 Orange County\u2019s Tourist Development Tax (TDT) brought in nearly $400 million in 2025, and more is expected this year. <\/p>\n

Florida law restricts TDT spending to tourism-related uses like major venues (including the Convention Center), tourism promotion, and similar projects \u2014 not needs like transportation or emergency services.<\/p>\n

County commissioners are now starting the process of forming a citizens task force to help guide funding priorities.<\/p>\n

Community organizations can apply for eligible TDT funding through July 16. The task force\u2019s first meeting is set for July 21 at the Orange County Administration Building.<\/p>\n

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About the AuthorAmy Russo headshotAmy Russo<\/a><\/p>\n

Amy Russo is an EMMY-nominated journalist who joined the News 6 team in March of 2026. She covers Central Florida as a Community Correspondent for the Conway, Lee Vista, Azalea Park, and Hunters Creek areas of Orange County. She is excited to be back in her home state after being away for six years!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Law states money has to be used for tourism-related purposes Orange County tourism tax dollars see Labor Day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2159,1335,139,141,140,1316,11021],"class_list":["post-330488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-money","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-tourism","tag-tourist-development-tax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}