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Florida Wants More Money To Lure Tourists

TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) --  Florida's tourism arm wants an extra $11.5 million added to their budget  to attract about 100 million visitors to the state each year.

Visit Florida is proposing to increase its budget from $63.5 million in the current year to $75 million in the next fiscal year.

"This will allow Visit Florida to continue to promote tourism across the state of Florida," Damon Steffens, the budget chief for the Department of Economic Opportunity, said this week as economic development agencies announced their budget requests.

Agencies throughout state government presented budget requests Wednesday for the 2014-15 fiscal year, which starts July 1. Gov. Rick Scott will consider those requests as he puts together a budget proposal that will go to the Legislature. Ultimately, it will be up to lawmakers to decide which of the requests get funded.

The $75 million in funding is what Scott proposed before the 2013 legislative session.

While the Legislature didn't give Scott all he requested for Visit Florida, the agency still received a $9.5 million increase.

The money is in addition to $110.9 million in private contributions to Visit Florida.

Those budget numbers were in place before Scott this summer set a goal of Florida annually attracting 100 million visitors.

The state attracted a record 91.4 million visitors --- 77.6 million domestic --- last year. Through the first six months of this year, Visit Florida estimated the Sunshine State saw 49.6 million visitors.

The visitors in 2012 spent about $67.2 billion, generating 23 percent of the state's sales-tax revenue, according to a Florida TaxWatch study that suggested the additional state money would be needed to reach the 100 million benchmark.

To try to reach Scott's visitor goal, the state has been marketing itself as a year-round destination rather than just a warm-weather winter playground. Also, while focusing on attracting more people from traditional locales --- New York, Boston, Atlanta and Chicago --- ads are being increased in markets west of the Mississippi and overseas.

Overall the Department of Economic Opportunity is seeking an increase of $289 million, pushing its budget to $1.2 billion.

Steffens said a majority of the costs are the result of increases to the Sadowski Act affordable-housing programs, including the State Housing Initiative Partnership (SHIP) program.

The agency is also requesting that the Quick Response Training Program remain at $12 million, the same as in the current year, Steffens said.

In November 2012, Scott announced he would ask the Legislature to double QRT funding to $12 million. QRT grants are provided by the department to help with training for new or expanding businesses.

Workforce Florida says in the fiscal year that ended at the end of June, the program handed out $8.5 million in grants that were projected to be used to train 6,522 employees, including 4,518 anticipated to be new jobs.

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.

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