Editor:
The caption under a photograph in Wednesday's "Flourishing Art" story is misleading. It states "The Tourist Development Council is planning to create new arts and music festivals in an effort to attract tourists to Highlands County." I only wish that was true. In fact the Tourist Development Council (TDC) does not create events. It only pays to advertise events that others have created and paid for.
It uses tourist tax dollars to fund itself and reimburse advertising costs for created events that fall within the county ordinance governing bed tax expenditures. The public voted on this ordinance 2001. It set funding categories, and percentages of the tourist tax dollars allocated to promote each category.
For 10 years the TDC has ignored the county ordinance and spent the tax monies to serve their own interests. Last year the state Joint Legislative Committee called them to task on it. TDC returned to the art & culture (A&C) fund some $162,000 in reconciliation for the over $300,000 they took out of it the past 10 years. They used that money to fund things other then A&C. Highlands County has suffered the consequences.
Cultural tourism is 74.9 percent of the tourist market in Florida and is proven to turn around rural economies. In Highlands County there are significant assets to attract this huge market. We have museums, murals, live theatre, art galleries and a vibrant and growing art community. The cultural tourist is looking for out-of-the-way cultural oasis like Highlands County.
The county as a whole would have benefited if TDC followed the rules set forth in the ordinance that established their existence. The public voted for them to spend 17 percent of the tourist tax dollars to target the cultural tourist. Not only did they redirect that money toward special interests in violation of the public trust but, they now want to change the rules to eliminate spending guidelines and cut the public out of the process altogether.
On Thursday, Feb. 28 at 8:15 a.m. at the Ag-Center in Sebring, the TDC is voting to empower itself to change the ordinance the public voted for. They want to replace it, without a public vote, with one that allows them to lump categories into one pot. It further allows them to spend the tax dollars as they so choose without guidelines or public recourse. This gives TDC power the public never voted for. It is also an open door for special interests to control TDC spending, and leave the community's well being hang out to dry, again.
Fred Leavitt, President
Heartland Cultural Alliance
Sunday, February 24, 2013 - www.newssun.com/ltr-022413-leavitt