Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran has taken aim at a dozen regional tourism agencies which broke off ties with VISIT FLORIDA due to new disclosure rules championed by Corcoran.
The 12 agencies, including Visit Tampa Bay, Visit Orlando, the Brevard County Tourism Office, and Experience Kissimmee, were forced to cut ties with the state-wide agency.
New rules brought in by Corcoran made it mandatory for any entity working with VISIT FLORIDA to disclose all operating budgets, all travel and entertainment expenses, and salaries and associated benefits paid to staff and board members.
The 12 agencies refused to disclose and ended their cooperation with VISIT FLORIDA.
Now Corcoran wants to know what they are hiding.
"This attempt to shield financial information from public scrutiny required by the transparency and accountability provisions of House Bill 1A is not acceptable," he said in a letter to each of the agencies.
Corcoran says the House has the the power to monitor their expenditure concerning taxpayer money.
However Corcoran’s crusade against VISIT FLORIDA was not about reigning in overspending but to bolster his own political profile, according to Senate Appropriations chairman Jack Latvala.
"The House of Representatives’ efforts in the whole economic development and tourism area was all about making political points, all about trying to make headlines, trying to raise your name. what we’ve done is make a product that is going to be very hard to implement," Latvala said recently.
"That’s the same House speaker who introduced a bill that would have eliminated Visit Florida, eliminated Enterprise Florida, eliminated every other economic development progras we have in Florida. And I’m not sure he cares."
The two men could face off in a race for Florida governor next year.
