...recent fiscal first-quarter 2011 breakdown of local bed tax funds given to Southwest to help market the area....the airline spent $1,099,408.51 of bed tax money during the period, with $651,000 coming from Bay County and the remainder from Walton County. He promised Wilkes that spending by the airline was “consistent with our marketing plans.”
A breakdown provided by Southwest showed that $365,642.12 was spent in the Chicago market; $325,127.42 in Dallas; $211,276.55 in Houston, Texas; $140,189.97 in Baltimore, Md.; and $57,172.44 in Nashville...
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The bed tax agreement with Southwest was part of a complex deal between the airport, the airline, the St. Joe Co. and the TDCs of Bay and Walton counties to bring the carrier to Bay County.
As part of the compact, the airline promised to provide daily, nonstop flights to the airport from Orlando, Nashville, Baltimore and Houston. The accord with the low-cost carrier, the largest domestic airline in the U.S., runs through 2014.
In a separate agreement, St. Joe, the region’s largest landowner, guaranteed potential losses by the carrier of up to $14 million for the first year of its Bay County operations and $12 million the second year, money that, so far, the airline has not needed...
