Tourism-Related Bills Under Consideration for 2025 Florida Legislative Session

[Jim Tucker]

Listed below are the bills in process during Florida’s 2025 Legislative Session that impact tourist development tax and usage, as outlined by Florida Statute 125.0104, including a bill related to local option taxes which includes the TDT. The status and content of these initiatives changes weekly; a link to the actual bill is provided to see full detail and monitor changes. The session ends Friday, May 2.

LEGISLATION

TDT Expiration & Renewal
HB 1221 - Local Option Taxes - Requires specified taxes to be renewed by ordinance in specified manner; provides for expiration of specified ordinances; authorizes adoption of new ordinances, effective July 1, 2025. Related to: SB 1664

SB 1664 - Local Option Taxes - Requiring specified taxes to be renewed by an ordinance in a specified manner; providing an exception; providing for the expiration of specified ordinances; authorizing the adoption of new ordinances, etc., effective July 1, 2025. Related to: HB 1221

TDT Expansion
HB 6031 Tourist Development Taxes - Deletes provision requiring specified percentage of all tourist development tax revenues to be used to promote & advertise tourism, effective July 1, 2025

[ Why I Filed This Bill(by Representative Eskamani): Florida’s Tourist Development Tax (TDT) generates billions, yet outdated restrictions prevent local governments from using these funds to address critical needs like public transit and affordable housing. Right now, counties like Orange must spend at least 40% of TDT revenue on advertising before they can invest in public facilities—leaving essential infrastructure underfunded. HB 6031 simply removes this restriction, giving counties like Orange the flexibility to use TDT funds for projects that benefit both residents and visitors—like expanded Lynx service, a SunRail airport connection, or workforce housing. This is a common-sense fix to ensure tourism tax dollars work for everyone, including residents and workers.]

SB 1114 - Tourist Development Tax - Limiting the total amount of tourist development tax revenues that must be spent annually to promote and advertise tourism in order for any tourist development tax revenues to be used for a specified purpose, etc. Effective July 1, 2025

SB 1116 - Tourist Development Tax - Authorizing proceeds of the tourist development tax to be used to fund public safety improvements, affordable housing, and workforce housing, etc. Effective July 1, 2025

Corporate vs. Residential Housing
HB 401 Residential Land Use Development Regulations - Authorizes counties & municipalities, respectively, to zone or designate parcel for single-family residential use or single-family hybrid housing use; authorizes counties & municipalities, respectively, to allow use of land for single-family residential use, while prohibiting use of land for single-family hybrid housing use; provides for adoption of local land development regulations. Effective July 1, 2025 Related: SB 634

[ Why I Filed This Bill(by Representative Jacques): I filed HB 401 to protect the American Dream of homeownership for hardworking Floridians. For too long, multinational corporations and Wall Street investors have treated our neighborhoods as commodities, buying up entire communities and turning them into rental zones. This bill ensures that Florida remains a place where families, not faceless financial institutions, determine the future of their communities.
HB 401 empowers local governments to designate land exclusively for single-family homeownership, preventing predatory investment firms from monopolizing residential areas. Homeownership fosters stability, economic prosperity, and civic engagement, and this bill prioritizes these values over speculative profiteering. By drawing a clear distinction between true homeownership and corporate-controlled “hybrid housing” models, we are restoring power to Florida families and ensuring they have a fair shot at building wealth and securing their future.
Florida belongs to Floridians, not Wall Street. With this bill, we are taking a stand against corporate overreach and reaffirming that housing should be about people not profits. ]

Large Scale DMOs
SB 1110 - Large-scale County Destination Marketing Organizations - Defining the term “large-scale county destination marketing organization” (annual operating budget of $5 million or more); requiring a large-scale county destination marketing organization to register with the Department of State; requiring the department to maintain a list of large-scale county destination marketing organizations on its website; requiring a one-to-one match of private to public contributions to fund large-scale county destination marketing organizations, etc. Effective July 1, 2025

Budget
Passage of a State budget bill is technically the only requirement of the State Legislative Session each year and it always impacts the dynamics between the Chambers and the Governor’s Office.
The Governor is required to make budget recommendations to the Legislature, which can be found here - “Focus on Fiscal Responsibility” Budget - and totals $115.6 billion. This is reportedly $4.6 billion less than the current budget and includes $80 million for VISIT FLORIDA, the State’s official destination marketing organization.

 

[leeboy]

Anyone know what's going on with this?


Please be advised that the Walton County Tourist Development Council will hold a Special Public Workshop on Tuesday, April 29, 2025, at 1 p.m. in the South Walton Annex Boardroom at 31 Coastal Centre Boulevard, Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459. This special public workshop is being held for the members of the TDC to discuss current legislation that could impact the use of TDT funds, as well as any other group discussions related to the business of the Council.

Two or more Walton County elected or appointed officials may attend. This workshop is open to the public. For additional information regarding Walton County TDC meetings, please contact Dana McDowell at 850-267-1216 x8526 or dana@wcfltourism.com.

 

[Truman]

This one is big, and is something locals have harped on for years. At some point you have to scale back advertising and spend on local projects to maintain quality of life and reasons tourists want to visit instead of killing the golden goose. (although private beaches may have killed and cooked our goose)

TDT Expansion
HB 6031 Tourist Development Taxes - Deletes provision requiring specified percentage of all tourist development tax revenues to be used to promote & advertise tourism, effective July 1, 2025

[ Why I Filed This Bill(by Representative Eskamani): Florida’s Tourist Development Tax (TDT) generates billions, yet outdated restrictions prevent local governments from using these funds to address critical needs like public transit and affordable housing. Right now, counties like Orange must spend at least 40% of TDT revenue on advertising before they can invest in public facilities—leaving essential infrastructure underfunded. HB 6031 simply removes this restriction, giving counties like Orange the flexibility to use TDT funds for projects that benefit both residents and visitors—like expanded Lynx service, a SunRail airport connection, or workforce housing. This is a common-sense fix to ensure tourism tax dollars work for everyone, including residents and workers.]

 

[Jim Tucker]

House Bill 1221, which passed the House State Affairs Committee on April 22, would require counties to use tourist development tax (TDT) revenues to reduce property taxes rather than funding tourism marketing and development projects.

“There are thousands of local option taxes across the state of Florida. They take in about $6 billion per year,” Rep. Miller said during her presentation to the committee. “These taxes are often extended for decades at a time, and in some cases have no sunset provision at all.”

The legislation would dissolve tourist development councils by the end of 2025 and restrict spending of tourism tax dollars to only existing contracts in force as of January 1, 2025.



Under state statute, counties like Okaloosa, Bay, and Walton can spend up to 10% of tourist development taxes on law enforcement, which Adams notes “is not enough.” The statute also requires that if tourism tax money is used for capital projects, at least 40% must be spent on marketing.



The bill’s supporters argue it would provide much-needed property tax relief. During committee debate, Rep. Cheney backed the measure, saying, “My community is one of the largest contributors of tourist tax into the county coffers. Yet we are assessed for our infrastructure because of all of the use.”

However, several committee members questioned whether the tax savings would justify potential economic losses. Vice Chair Mooney calculated that the projected statewide savings would amount to approximately “$68.78 per every man, woman, and child in the state.”

 

[SUP Boarder]

Interesting...Walton County TDC says tourist tax bills could be catastrophic to the area

Not sure I agree with Algarin on this:

“There’s a laundry list of things that tourism dollars are used for. You’re taking those funds to offset property taxes, but how do you then recreate that revenue to fund all of the things that it’s funding, and the things that it’s earmarked for?” Algarin said.

“We would essentially have to raise the millage rate by one and a half mills, which equates to an approximate 42% tax increase,” Algarin said.

Seems that TDC spending could be decreased in areas (e.g. marketing) that won't require alternative funding from residents (?)

 

[leeboy]

Interesting...Walton County TDC says tourist tax bills could be catastrophic to the area

Not sure I agree with Algarin on this:

“There’s a laundry list of things that tourism dollars are used for. You’re taking those funds to offset property taxes, but how do you then recreate that revenue to fund all of the things that it’s funding, and the things that it’s earmarked for?” Algarin said.

“We would essentially have to raise the millage rate by one and a half mills, which equates to an approximate 42% tax increase,” Algarin said.

Seems that TDC spending could be decreased in areas (e.g. marketing) that won't require alternative funding from residents (?)

IMHO funds should be spent on Beach cleaning, beach restoration, gaining back beach access and other community improvement and infrastructure... Keep SoWal excellent and people will come.