This is my first message of
2016. I hope you are as busy as we are
at the Chamber. I have to thank my team
that works with me in the office every day.
They are working harder than they ever have to keep up with all that’s
happening. Their efforts will ensure
you’re receiving maximum benefits from the work your Chamber is doing.
I’d also like to thank the 2016 Board. They’ve really supported our ideas and
thoughts and direction for our 50th year. I hope you’ll be a part of all we are doing
to celebrate this impressive milestone.
Mark your calendar for the 50th Anniversary Celebration Party
on Sept. 15, at the Henderson. It’s sure
to be the party of the half-century!
Rather than bring you all the
information I can about our upcoming events, I’m going to go a different
direction this time. (You can find all
the event information you need at DestinChamber.com.) I want to tell you about some things we do
that you usually don’t hear about. But
these are just as important because it helps us set a tone for the economy, the
business environment, and overall quality of place we enjoy in Destin and
Florida.
We’ve been busy in the government
affairs arena the first seven weeks of the year. So far, we’ve passed a resolution supporting
the Okaloosa County TDD in its efforts to bring most of its marketing
in-house. We feel this will give us more
local control and oversight on the marketing and advertising strategies for our
tourism marketing. We’ll continue to
work with the TDD on these efforts.
We’ve also worked with
Representative Matt Gaetz, providing him input on his bill that would permit
the use of 10% of TDD bed tax dollars to be used for law enforcement. Rep. Gaetz was very cooperative with the Chamber
Board in working through our concerns for uses of that money. While we, as a Chamber Board, are still not
convinced this is the best use of the TDD money, because the use of the funds
is optional, we felt it was the right direction. We have other ideas on how to fund the need
for increased law enforcement, but we are only in preliminary discussions with
those ideas.
The Board has again passed a
resolution supporting $250 million for marketing dollars for Enterprise
Florida, the state’s economic development agency. Many states across the nation are spending
hundreds of millions of dollars pushing their message to lure and attract new
businesses to their states. We feel
Florida needs to do the same. Florida
has led the nation in private sector job creation the last several months. We need to continue that. We need high-skill, high-wage jobs in the
state and in Okaloosa and Walton counties to support the projected growth
expected by 2030. Did you know
projections show that Florida’s population will balloon by 6 million people by
2030? We need employment opportunities
for them. Visit FlChamber.com for more
information.
In late 2015, the Chamber Board
passed a resolution supporting the elimination of the business rent tax. Florida is the only state in the country that
still charges sales tax on commercial leases.
We joined the Florida Chamber of Commerce and a coalition of 28 other
chambers in the state to work toward reducing this tax. Thanks again to Rep. Gaetz, it appears that a
permanent cut of 1% in the tax will come this year, with an optional 1% cut for
the following year. We’ll continue to
monitor this issue and work to reduce, or even eliminate, this tax.
As you can see, the Board has
been working diligently to make Destin and Florida a better place to do
business. After all, our mission
statement is ‘Advocating for Businesses, Strengthening our Community.’ We’ll continue to work for you!
With wishes for continued
success, and until next time,
Shane A. Moody, CCE, FCCP
Destin Chamber President and CEO
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