House Speaker Richard Corcoran is willing to allow Visit Florida to remain alive, at one-third the funding sought by Gov. Rick Scott and with a list of conditions attached.
A Scott spokeswoman quickly called the “massive cut” a threat to Florida families that rely on the tourism industry.
In the latest move in a feud between Corcoran and Scott, the speaker’s office Monday released an amendment to a contentious bill (HB 7005) going before the House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday.
That bill seeks to abolish Enterprise Florida, the state’s business-recruitment agency, and Visit Florida, the state’s tourism-marketing arm.
The amendment would place a series of new requirements on Visit Florida, which would receive $25 million if it agrees to what Corcoran’s office described as “accountability and transparency measures.”
Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, called the amendment a way to end “business as usual” at the tourism-marketing agency through “unprecedented levels of accountability and openness.”
However, the measure isn’t truly an olive branch to the governor, whose budget request for next year includes $85 million that would go to Enterprise Florida for business-recruitment incentives and $76 million that would go to Visit Florida.
Corcoran said the changes proposed to Visit Florida would end “its history of slush funds, corporate negligence and secret insider deals.”
Among the changes sought by the amendment, Visit Florida would have to:
• Post all contracts online
• Freeze agency employees’ benefits at current levels and prohibit bonuses
• Remove public records exemptions from marketing and research projects
• Get approval from the governor for out-of-state and international travel.
Also, the Senate would have to confirm the governor’s appointment of the agency’s president, and the Joint Legislative Budget Commission, House speaker or Senate president could reject contracts worth more than $750,000.
The agency’s annual operating budget would have to go through the legislative budget commission.
Scott spokeswoman Jackie Schutz said the governor has already been working on changes at Visit Florida, including a change in leadership.