ORLANDO — A proposal to invest $60 million in a museum celebrating Eatonville’s cultural history moved forward Tuesday while nearly $1 billion sought for a proposed Major League Baseball stadium failed to win support, as Orange County began narrowing how billions of future tourism-tax dollars should be spent.
by Lee Dixon, OrlandoAdvocate
The county’s Tourist Development Tax Citizen Advisory Task Force recommended funding for 12 projects after weeks of presentations and public discussion. The recommendations now move to the Orange County Commission, which is expected to consider them Aug. 25. Spectrum News 13
Among the projects advancing is a $60 million request from Dr. Phillips Charities for the Eatonville Museum of Culture and History on the historic Hungerford property.
The decision is particularly significant for Eatonville, one of America’s oldest incorporated Black municipalities and a community whose cultural identity has long extended far beyond its small geographic footprint.
The issue is not simply who receives tourism money. It is what lasting public value Orange County buys with it.
The advisory panel also recommended funding connected with the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, Florida Citrus Sports, an Ocoee training and conference facility, the Eatonville Community Redevelopment Agency, arts programs, a children’s museum in Winter Garden and an Orange Audubon Society nature center at Lake Apopka.
One of the largest requests did not make it through.
The Orlando Dreamers sought $975 million in tourism-tax funding toward a stadium intended to help attract a Major League Baseball expansion franchise to Orlando. The task force declined to recommend it.
A separate $523 million request for an 8,000-seat expansion at the Orange County Convention Center also failed to advance. Spectrum News 13
Up to approximately $3 billion in future uncommitted Tourist Development Tax revenue could ultimately be allocated through the process. Spectrum News 13
That makes the debate larger than baseball, museums or performing arts.
It is fundamentally a question about what Central Florida’s tourism economy should leave behind for the people who live here.
The Advocate Angle
Orange County’s tourism industry generates enormous public revenue.
The Orlando Advocate believes residents should therefore ask a basic question whenever those dollars are allocated:
What lasting public value are we buying?
For Eatonville, the museum proposal offers an unusual intersection of cultural preservation, Black history, tourism and economic development.
For the Dreamers, Tuesday’s vote raises a different question: whether an MLB stadium can still make its economic case without nearly $1 billion in county tourism-tax support.
Neither story ends with the task force.
The consequential votes belong to county commissioners Aug. 25.
Pull quote: “The issue is not simply who receives tourism money. It is what lasting public value Orange County buys with it.”
- Kevin Seraaj
- Kevin Seraaj
- Kevin Seraaj
- Kevin Seraaj
