Bed Tax Workshop

The first public hearing for the proposed Franklin County Bed Tax took place November 18 in Apalachicola and was attended by APTA’s president, Ken Osborne. Attached to this news item is a handout provided at the meeting. Please note that in order to publish this handout on our web site, the document had to be scanned and then "cleaned up" in Word. Ever effort was made to publish the handout in the exact manner as the original, but due to these manipulations the published document is not an exact copy of the original.

Ken offers these comments regarding the handout:

1. Vacation rental house is any rental less than six months.
2. No member of the nine-member Tourist Development Council is east of Carrabelle.
3. Members are appointed for terms

The next public and (final) hearing will take place December 2 at 7:00 PM at the Senior Center in Carrabelle. A courtesy presentation will be presented at the next APTA meeting, December 13, 2003 (this date is after the final hearing) meeting at the firehouse.

Please study the draft plan and consider the following questions: how will renters be affected, what will the effects be for our community and for Franklin County, who benefits from the tax, how will the Tourist Development Council determine which infrastructure projects to fund? You may arrive at other questions after studying the plan.

The purpose of the two workshops is to receive community input and to arrive at a final plan to be presented to the Franklin County Commission for its consideration. The Bed Tax will become effective if the County Commission approves an ordinance calling for a special referendum and if the electorate approves the referendum in the March 9th, 2004 Presidential Primary Election.