>>This week on NewsNight, Mayor Jerry Demings says he's considering another push for a penny sales tax to fund transportation projects in central Florida.

Plus, Orange County Commissioners debate the spending of bed tax dollars for visit Orlando as the county lobbies for the expanded use of tourism revenues.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello, I'm Steve Mort, and welcome to NewsNight where we take an in-depth look at the top stories and issues in central Florida and how they affect all of us.

First tonight, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings is leaving open the possibility of asking voters for a second time to approve a penny sales tax hike to pay for transportation projects.

The first attempt to pass the penny sales tax increase was rejected by nearly 60% of county voters last year.

The mayor says a decision will have to be made by the spring on whether to try again.

>>To do something transformative in a growing community.

We'll take billions of dollars, as I have indicated, and since, according to the census, the census data in the decade leading up to 2020, our population in Orange County alone grew by 25%.

>>Would you consider bringing back the idea of the penny sales tax at some point?

One of the pushbacks at the time was we can't afford it at the moment.

Do you think that's something you'd like to reintroduce as a concept?

>>We're having those conversations.

The first time that we can put it on the ballot again would be for the general election of 2024.

What I can tell you is that at this time it's unknown if we advance it to the ballot.

The Board of County Commission will have to make that decision by late spring of 2024 in order just to get it on the ballot.

The economy will play a decision and play into the decision of whether or not we advance that tax or not.

And so in 2024, I don't know what the future holds.

I don't have a crystal ball, but I'm optimistic that our economy will be doing well.

I can tell you that many economists have projected that we would have had a recession by now, and that didn't happen.

That's the good news.

And being able to sustain the momentum that we have with our economy is going to be part of, I think, a global economic picture.

And so we'll just have to see at this point.

>>Mayor Demings talking to me here in the studio last week.

Well, let's bring in our panel now to break it all down.

Joining us in the studio this week, Erik Sandoval, investigative reporter over at WKMG News 6.

Thanks for being here, Erik.

>>Of course.

>>Appreciate your time.

Alexa Lorenzo, morning host at WFTV, Channel 9.

Thanks for being here as well.

Certainly good to see you guys today.

Erik, Mayor Demings says we're going to have to wait and see when it comes to a penny sales tax.

But there are a lot of unknowns about the trajectory of this economy, right?

>>To say the very least.

You know, I know it failed last time because people couldn't afford it.

He just said that in your interview with him and I think if you ask a lot of the Orange County voters right now what they would want, they would say the same thing right now.

I think he's really optimistic in saying that.

He's hopeful the economy will show signs of recovery by by late spring because that's when the commissioner has it.

The commissioners have to approve this.

But I wouldn't hold my breath.

I mean, just just given what we're experiencing right now, to your point, the economy is just really rough right now.

>>For a lot of people.

>>Yeah.

>>The cost of living.

Alexa, Orange County has proposed a five year, $100 million plan for transportation infrastructure.

They did that recently.

What is in that proposal?

And I wonder how it's paid for if we don't have that penny sales tax.

>>The mayor has said that it's coming from the same good old revenue stream.

So all they're doing is tightening their belts elsewhere and reallocating and it's really putting millions of dollars in new bus shelters, more street lighting, lighting.

They talk about pedestrian and bicycle safety, which we know we need more of the reliability and frequency of Lynx busses.

So he's saying that regardless of the penny sales tax, not passing, something still needs to be done.

They've identified transportation needs.

And the answer isn't is just say it didn't pass.

We can't do it.

It's to figure out how to get it done with the current money that they have.

That penny sales tax.

Alexa was rejected handily right in 2022 by voters.

Is there any indication that they may come around this time?

I mean, if 60% were opposed last time.

>>I think regardless of who you talk to now, if you ask them to compare where they were then to versus where they are now-- >>Yeah.

>>Nine out of ten people are going to tell you they're struggling more now than they were back then.

So I think if this comes around in the general election, like Demings was just saying in 2024, I don't see that it passes.

Maybe I'm misspeaking, but people are tightening their own belts a little more now, putting more money back into the community this way just doesn't seem feasible for a lot of people right now.

>>The political prediction game is a very difficult one, so we'll just have to wait and see how that plays out.

Mayor Jerry Demings spoke with me recently for a special episode of NewsNight coming up next month, checking in on central Florida's transportation issues, our deep dive into Brightline.

The Sunshine Corridor links pedestrian safety and more will air December 15th at 8:30 right here on WUCF.

Let's stay with the economy now and talk about tourist development tax.

The Orange County Commission met this week to discuss funding for Visit Orlando and the contract between the county and the tourism promotion agency.

Commissioners agreed to cuts to Visit Orlando's future budget after a presentation by its leaders and a lengthy debate.

>>I think we should just try to maintain what we have since we are on the top already spending more money and an industry that is bringing down wages and causing poverty in our county to me just doesn't seem smart.

When we look at different ways to use this money that has higher paying jobs and can bring some diversity to our economy.

>>We are very proud that we are the number one visited destination in the country, if not the world.

And it's very intentional and it's very strategic and complex.

There are case studies where there have been either a reduction in marketing budgets or not funding for promotional, where it took those destinations such as Colorado 10 to 15 years to build back their visitation numbers.

>>Visit Orlando is not bad.

Marketing is not bad.

I don't think anybody on here is saying marketing is bad.

We want you to stop.

What we're talking about is a balance.

We're spending double in tourism than we are in our contribution to public transit.

I mean, the need is here and we can't keep ignoring it.

While tourism is so important, marketing is so important.

Bringing people here is important.

Our arts are important, but having people survive and live in this town is equally as important.

What we know is if we're able to grow the occupancy number, even one or two points, that could be hundreds of millions more dollars in TDT dollars for arts as to utilize within the community.

>>The Orange County Commission meeting this week.

Alexa, let me talk to you about this first.

The commission hasn't decided about how much to trade right from visit Orlando's budget.

I think Commissioner Mayra Uribe called it a haircut.

>>Right.

>>That decision is going to be made later.

But why do some commissioners believe that visit Orlando should get less money, given what an outsized role it plays in our economy?

It's all about need.

They say affordable housing is a bigger need right now.

Transportation is a bigger need.

Safety is a bigger need.

And while they haven't solidified a number of how much they would trim or how much they should get, we've seen some commissioners be very outspoken, Myra Uribe being one of them, Emily Bonilla being another.

They want to trim about $30 million and they have data showing how quickly the money allocation grew.

In 2019, it was about 62 million for Visit Orlando.

Now it's an estimated 108 million for next year.

That's significant very quickly.

Yeah.

So they are looking at again, their words are trimming.

They're not doing a full blown ya get nothing, but they want to pull back.

>>You know that still, even with a $108 million budget, 30 is still a pretty large chunk of percentage of that.

I mean, Erik funding for Visit Orlando has been the source of controversy for some time.

All of us here have been covering it in this county know that the nonprofit's budget has grown, as Alexa said, over the years.

How do tourism leaders argue that they need even more?

>>Well, I think you just heard it in some of the comments that were made during the commissioners meeting.

You know, they say even raising hotel occupancy 1 to 2 percentage points brings in millions and millions of dollars more.

But I think there's a great argument to be said about those millions and millions dollars more to go to our first segment where we were talking about transportation to your point, there's a lot of other aspects of this community that that money could be going towards.

And I think a lot of people point to right after the pandemic.

How quickly our economy bounced back is that marketing really needed?

Really needed?

I think that's probably going to be discussed at future meetings.

>>Well, let's talk about another issue, a TDT issue that we've been watching, and that is funding for city venues.

The owners of the Camping World Stadium have released new renderings of the proposed stadium overhaul and we'll put that up on the screen.

But there's still no agreement right on the TDT request for that renovation or for the Amway Center either.

>>Right there are projects approved for their Orange County Convention Center, $90 million right here, UCF for the football stadium, the football tower.

And $69.4 million for arts and cultural events.

You know, Camping World is waiting for that decision.

And Mayor Dyer had requested an upgrade for Amway $256 million.

That's a lot of money going towards these agencies.

>>Alexa, the Orange County comptroller, though, has been pretty conservative, hasn't he, when it comes to his recommendations to the commission, given how the declines in TDT revenues have been going of late following those sort of post-pandemic highs, how have those recent numbers been looking?

>>We're pretty flat.

We saw a gain, but it was a 1% gain in September.

So for the first time since March, those monthly tourist tax collections exceeded the total for last year.

So it's a win.

But again, are we really going to cut a ribbon, throw a pizza party for a 1% gain?

Right.

So the conservative nature of it continues because to your point, we saw such a boom post-pandemic.

There was that pent up demand and that's really starting to wane off.

People let loose.

They did what they wanted to after the pandemic and now they're being conservative themselves.

So we're not seeing that collection skyrocket like we were last year or the year before.

>>And there are sort of niggling concerns, aren't there, not only about the health of the economy, but specifically about the tourism industry.

Disney put out a study just this week estimating its economic impact in Florida to be some 40.3 billion, but its revenues at Disney World keep declining quite a bit recently.

What is the company reporting on that and why does it think this slump is happening?

I mean, is it part of a broader softening in the economy?

>>So they point to lower guest spending, They point to a decrease in hotel room rates.

They talked about flattening attendance overall across Florida's tourism markets, not just their parks in this third quarter report really paints a picture of what we're experiencing here locally as a company.

Disneyland's doing great.

They're seeing increasing attendance that's not playing out here in Florida.

So it really is specific to us as a state.

But it's a mixed bag because at the same time, Disney did say they were going to invest $17 billion over the next decade right here in central Florida to keep pumping out jobs, keep bringing in people.

So at this point, they're seeing a decline and they're trying to pinpoint, okay, yes, inflation, yes, lower park attendance, but their hands are kind of tied because they still bring in so much money.

>>They also said a lot of the people who are coming to Disney World right now are Florida residents.

>>Right.

>>You know, it's not a lot of people from out of state spending.

Those large.

Exactly.

Spending those large amounts of money to make the trip to the Orlando area to go to Disney World anymore.

It's you and me.

>>The county is now lobbying state lawmakers for the ability to use tourism revenues beyond sales taxes.

Obviously, for other priorities.

What is the county asking for at this point in Tallahassee?

Well, you know, there are a little leeway.

You know, we were talking before this show.

Other counties have done this.

Why isn't Orange County spending some of this tourism tax money on other other things?

I think it was.

Was it Emily Bonilla during the commissioners meeting who said that, you know, why aren't we using some of this money for affordable housing?

We were talking about transportation.

You know, I think there's there there's a lot of other avenues this money could go towards.

Even, you know, Representative Anna Eskamani has been a big proponent of this in Tallahassee, asking lawmakers to just change things a little bit.

So some of these tourist tax dollars could go towards things that really matter in the community.

>>Because there is a framework at the moment that local governments do have to follow when it comes to spending that money.

Be sure to join this conversation on social media we're at WUCF TV on Facebook, X, and also on Instagram.

All right.

Next tonight, more developments in higher education in Florida.

Last week, the state board of governors took up two proposals based on SB 266 passed in the last legislative session, the first to remove a sociology class that deals with gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity issues from universities, core social science offerings.

The second to implement the state's ban on public funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

That rule also bans state universities from spending taxpayer money to promote or engage in political or social activism.

The draft defines social issues as topics that polarize or divide society.

Here's a portion of the debate on that, starting with board member Jack Hitchcock, who says he's concerned the rule on social activism may prevent university president from speaking out as New College President Richard Corcoran did in a recent Wall Street Journal article supporting Israel.

>>I'm afraid that that article, with support of Israel and Jewish students, would be able to qualify as social issues no matter if we like that or not.

But they are topics that polarize or divide society, which is why a statement needed to be made and that wouldn't be allowed anymore.

>>We have a responsibility to implement a regulation, to implement the law.

What we need to do now is go through our process, let the public give us their comment.

Just as we had a great conversation with the faculty this morning.

And that's the same thing we asked of them is to organize comments back to us so that we can get this right.

I mean, this is obviously a big deal and I think we need to we are we are listening and we need to listen and we need to be responsive to what some of these circumstances are.

And I think that's where we're at right now.

This is just the starting point of this process.

>>I am here today to represent students.

We are completely opposed to this proposal.

Diversity is our strength, and we're seeing that from faculty and students.

We want to be diverse.

The implementation of SB 266, I believe the language would ban college Republican and college Democrat clubs on campuses.

It would be a chilling effect on political discourse.

And in a healthy democracy, we need discourse.

>>Alexa let me start with you on this one.

And the rule on DEI and social activism funding that was advanced by the board for approval, I think, at a later date.

What do we hear broadly from students?

We heard there from Logan Rubinstein and others who spoke on this issue at that board meeting.

Was the public input broadly opposed?

>>Yeah, there was a lot of outcry from students, from professors and from community members.

And I think right now what everyone is talking about is the unknown trickle down effect, right?

You hear I believe I think what if they wanted to accomplish this?

But what if that now leads to the banning of Republican and Democrat groups on campus?

So there's a lot of unknown and a lot of uncertainty that's just making people mad because they don't know how it's going to affect academics, how it's going to affect their social, cultural feel on campus.

And I have to say that this public comment section was short.

All it's allotted for is 15 minutes.

So people got up there to talk for one minute and it was rapid fire.

Yeah.

So I think if they were to let that clock run, which they aren't allowed to do, you would have heard even more outcry.

>>And it was a pretty long meeting-- >>Would have gone on a couple of days.

>>Probably still be meeting.

I mean, the education commissioner proposed a last minute change to those core courses.

And we've heard quite a lot about these core courses that students have got to take at state universities.

He wants to eliminate UF's principles of sociology.

Do we know why?

>>Well, because of what we just mentioned at the top of this segment, because it deals with gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity.

And under SB 266, that's off the table.

>>The course would still be offered.

>>It would still be offered as an elective, and it wouldn't be a core.

And I think from what I'm hearing, they want to replace that with a history course instead.

So it would still be available, but just you wouldn't be required to take it as part of your core curriculum.

>>Well, certainly the issue of what is being taught in higher education institutions in our state has really been a hot button issue recently.

As we've mentioned on this program before, the chancellor of the state university system, Ray Rodrigues, recently wrote to the University of Florida and the University of South Florida to tell them to deactivate their chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine.

The governor has accused the National SJP Organization of aligning itself with Hamas in violation of Florida law on providing material support to terrorism.

But take a listen to this from Chancellor Rodrigues last week and then we'll talk about it.

>>The constitutions of both organizations which were submitted by them at the beginning of the school year when they were registered as an active student registered organization, clearly state that they're organized and is not subservient or under the National Students for Justice in Palestine.

Therefore, the universities have not deactivated their university chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine.

Additionally, both universities have obtained legal opinions.

We have reviewed those opinions, and in short, they raise concerns about potential personal liability for university actors who deactivate the student registered organization.

At this time we are taking two steps.

First, the board is seeking our own outside legal counsel on this matter.

And two, we are working with the two universities to seek an express affirmation from their campus Students for Justice in Palestine.

Within that affirmation will be three components that they reject violence that they reject that they are part of the Hamas movement and that they will follow the law.

>>Chancellor Rey Rodrigues there, Alexa, this seems like a big deal.

I mean, the governor has made a big deal of these SJP chapters being disbanded, but they haven't been.

>>Right.

In the most recent debate in Miami.

He said they're gone and they're not.

And it's because at this point, the state doesn't know what legal authority it has, what leg to stand on, what legal leg to stand on, to say you've got to go.

And it's been made very clear by these organizations at UF and USF that they operate independently of the national organization.

So at this point, they're trying to see what they can do.

But a clean wipe of this this organization at these two universities, at this point, they can't do.

Even the interim director of the ACLU here in Florida has said, regardless of how offensive and distasteful these groups are, regardless of your opinion of them, it doesn't constitute an incitement of violence.

They aren't doing anything illegal right now.

They're not putting out material support for terrorism.

So at this point, if they do issue those statements, as the chancellor said, that's one thing.

But right now it's just that legal authority.

>>And the governor has used the term material support.

This has been a big issue for the governor.

>>It has.

And I think, you know, back to what you were saying, the fact that these groups should have a faculty sponsor is is part of the concern because they're worried about what that means for the university and ultimately the state when it comes to the Palestine Hamas connection with these groups.

>>And certainly not an issue that's likely to be going away any time soon, unfortunately.

Before we go, I wanted to touch on another key development this week, the resignation of One Pulse Foundation executive director Deborah Bowie.

Deborah Bowie took over at the helm of the One Pulse Foundation more than a year ago following the resignation of Barbara Poma, the former owner of the Pulse site.

Poma, her husband, and her business partner sold the site to the city recently for $2 million.

The city says it will set about creating a permanent memorial there.

After one pulse, it said it would find a different location when discussions over donating the site fell through.

The foundation also recently announced it was scrapping plans for a museum for which it received six and a half million dollars in tourist development tax money from Orange County to buy a location near the Pulse nightclub site and design a building.

That location at Division and Caylee has been surrendered to Orange County.

One Pulse said it was saddened by Bowie's departure, but wished her success for the future.

All right.

Alexa let me start with you on this one.

What do we know about Deborah Bowie and why she quit as the executive director.

>>At this point she's saying it was all for what was done before her time.

She said she tried to bring transparency into the organization and be forward facing.

But this has been a months long decision.

Basically saying her hands were tied because of everything that predated her role.

She says she's bonded with this team, says she really felt that at some point there was a path forward.

But they face so many headwinds that, again, predated her hiring.

>>What is One Pulse itself saying about about the loss of its executive director, another loss for that organization.

>>They said they're sad to see her go, that they thought very highly of her and the work that she could bring to the table.

But that, again, it was a daunting set of challenges and they're pointing more toward what's happened in life.

Right.

Post COVID pandemic stalled negotiation as well for the Pulse property, they're saying we hate to see her go, but this is why.

>>We've covered the city's purchase of the Pulse site, which the city intends to turn into a memorial now.

>>Subsequently, though, to that discussion, One Pulse said it was scrapping plans for that museum as well that we just that we just saw.

What do we know about that decision?

>>I laugh because there's just so many balls in the air about this.

You know, they had planned to build that at Caylee and Division on one property that they had.

They said the pandemic's soaring construction cost.

This is a theme of this show.

Just the economy forced them to reimagine what that looks like.

They said those modifications of that reimagination just weren't enough.

And, you know, given the back and forth with the property, whether they managed the interim memorial or not, they had to pull up stakes, reimagine a memorial at a different spot.

Given all of that, they just said, you know, the museum's off the table.

We're just going to go focus on the memorial.

And now even that's in question.

>>And we we've all been covering this town for a while.

I mean, given that it was seven years ago, this probably isn't where we expected this process to be at this point.

>>No, absolutely not.

And, you know, I wrote down just highlights of what's happened in April.

You know, Barbara Poma, One Pulse parted ways.

In May.

They announced a memorial on a different site.

July the foundation terminated its lease.

In September, Poma took over paying for the security.

And in October, of course, the city bought the property from Barbara Poma individually, not the One Pulse Foundation.

I said this yesterday on News 6, but you know, every time.

No matter what station you're with, WUCF, Channel 9, Channel 6, every time we do these stories, the community is learning something, but we're also revictimizing these families.

And these these people, the survivors who went through so much on June 12th, 2016.

And I think it's an awful shame that brighter minds couldn't prevail to get this memorial done, get it done without the drama, without the ego, and without having to drag these families through so much awfulness for nearly eight years and June, it'll be eight years.

And we saw that revictimization issue playing out at the Orlando City Council meeting when this issue was being discussed.

A lot of people very upset.

>>At the core, this is for the survivors, the victims, their families, their communities.

This isn't about property rights.

This isn't about revenue.

This isn't about tourism.

It's about people.

And it's about humans at the core.

And this back and forth over politics, over money is just continuing to hurt these families over and over and over again.

And I can't wait to see this come to a close.

>>Me, too.

And of course, Congress has designated that site a national memorial already.

It did that some time ago.

A reminder, you can find this in past episodes of NewsNight on our website.

Visit us online at wucf.org/newsnight along the bottom of your screen.

But that is all the time we have for this week.

My thanks to Erik Sandoval from WKMG News 6 thanks for coming in for it.

Alexa Lorenzo, WFTV, Channel 9 thanks for being here as well, Alexa.

Good to see you guys in the studio today.

We'll see you next Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

For all of us here at NewsNight, take care and have a great week.