Visit Orlando hides its use of tax dollars

Three decades ago, local leaders wanted to do more to promote Orlando as a vacation destination.

Basically, the tourism industry was tired of paying for all its own advertising.

So chamber-of-commerce types teamed up with county commissioners to launch a convention and visitors bureau in 1986 — something they billed as a public-private “partnership” that they funded with $346,000 in taxes that had been levied on hotel visits that first year.

Well, the tourism executives loved it. After all, this was advertising money they could take from tourists’ pockets, rather than their own.

So they asked for more. And more. And more.

Pretty soon, $300,000 from taxpayers became $3 million. Then $30 million.

Nowadays, taxpayers send about $50 million each year to the bureau, now known as Visit Orlando.

But as far as “partnerships” go, well, this one’s pretty lopsided.

IRS records for 2015 — the most recent year available — show that taxpayers contributed $49 million, while private “membership dues” accounted for less than $3 million.

That’s a “partnership” in the same way a tick “partners” with a bloodhound.

Perhaps more concerning, though, is that Visit Orlando keeps secrets about what it does with all these tax dollars.

By law, the agency must release some information, such as salaries for its top execs — a $714,000 compensation package ($406,000 base pay plus $308,000 in bonuses, incentives and benefits) for CEO George Aguel and packages of $303,000, $282,000 and $281,000 for other execs at the taxpayer-funded nonprofit.

But there is so much more we don’t know — precisely how tens of millions of tax dollars are spent on sponsorships, contracts, travel and more, including advertisements in newspapers like the Orlando Sentinel.

One of the most closely guarded secrets surrounds a deal with the U.S. Tennis Association. Three years ago, Visit Orlando entered into a deal to sponsor tennis events — including the U.S. Open, which begins next week in New York.

It was an unusual partnership. Insiders say the multi-year deal was wildly expensive — totaling far more than the controversial $1 million contract Visit Florida signed with rapper Pitbull.

But was it a total of $2 million? $4 million? $6 million? More? Visit Orlando won’t say. And your locally elected officials — theoretically the watchdogs for your tax dollars — appear blissfully clueless.

I contacted Mayor Teresa Jacobs and the six members of the Orange County Commission and asked them the same two questions:

1) Do you know how many of

the tax dollars you collect have been spent on this tennis deal?

2) If you don’t, how can you possibly claim to be a good steward of public money?

Not a one of them said they knew. And not a one of them expressed a lick of concern.

Most took the approach that Jacobs took in this week’s paper, expressing confidence in the tourism bosses and their secrets.

This, my friends, is why Orlando remains a oneticket town in many regards. Because no matter how many high-tech airs we try to put on, we never seem to outgrow our Mickey Mouse roots. The politicians still kowtow to tourism.

They may talk tough about crime or taxes. But when it comes to tourism, they often just do as they’re told.

That changed in Tallahassee this year when House Speaker Richard Corcoran decided that public money and private secrets were a bad mix.

He and the Legislature forced Visit Orlando’s statelevel counterpart, Visit Florida, to disclose everything.

So when I heard that Visit Florida had a piece of that top-secret tennis contract Visit Orlando refused to disclose, I asked for a copy. Visit Florida produced it immediately.

In studying it, I learned that, in 2015 and 2016, Visit Florida had a piece — presumably just a small piece — of Visit Orlando’s larger contract with the Tennis Association. Visit Florida was basically a subcontractor.

The contract called for Visit Florida to pay as much as $1 million to sponsor tennis events in exchange for online advertising, radio ads, luxury box suites to the U.S. Open and more.

Visit Florida officials decided not to continue the contract, saying there were better ways to spend the public’s money.

“We’d rather put that money directly into core marketing,” said Stephen Lawson, Visit Florida’s vice president.

It’s possible the Tennis Association contract provides Visit Orlando boffo benefits. But when I ran the prospect by Rollins College marketing professor Mark Johnston, he said there was really no way for taxpayers to know.

“The key to knowing whether you are getting the bang for the buck is to know what the buck is,” he said.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer — the only elected official who said he thinks Visit Orlando should be transparent with the tennis contract — said he thought the contract with the USTA was done in conjunction with the region’s successful effort to lure a 63-acre USTA tennis facility to Lake Nona in 2014.

If that’s the case, it wasn’t disclosed to the taxpayers who funded the deal. Local leaders touted the tennis campus without saying a word about costs to taxpayers.

So I asked Visit Orlando about a dozen questions. (How much was the tennis contract? What do you get for it? Why aren’t the payments clearly disclosed on the county’s check register? How many staffers are you sending to the U.S. Open? Was this deal cut to lure the USTA to Orlando? And more, including this key one: If you are not willing to tell taxpayers how much of their money you are spending, how can they can have any confidence you’re spending it wisely?)

Instead of answering all those questions, Aguel and Visit Orlando claimed the tennis contract was confidential and issued a general statement that said: “As you know, our organization operates our programs with extensive levels of accountability and oversight by the county, our board of directors, member committees, independent auditors and an established audit and oversight committee. “

So there you have it, taxpayers. They have auditors and committees who look at all this stuff in private. So trust them.

That’s not good enough. Not when it comes to public money … more than $600 million over the past three decades.

Dyer’s office said the mayor believes Visit Orlando should follow Visit Florida’s lead when it comes to transparency, saying the contract “should be public.”

And Corcoran vowed Friday to force agencies like Visit Orlando to start coughing up details, saying: “If you spend one dime of taxpayer money, you will do it in a transparent and accountable way.”

That’s the way it should always be with public money.

If hoteliers and theme park execs want to keep secrets, fine. They can spend their own money.

But when you refuse to tell taxpayers how you’re spending their money, it looks like you have something to hide.