Sumter County may suspend its tax on hotels and other tourism-related businesses to provide some relief from lost revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The county also has been asked by the state to set up sites for distributing a potential virus vaccine.
“I think this is a tax we don’t need right now,” said Commissioner Doug Gilpin, who proposed the suspension.
Commissioner Al Butler agreed and commissioners Steve Printz and Don Burgess also voiced support.
“This is not a time to be charging the tax,” Butler said. “We’ve got quite a surplus in the tourism development account.”
In July, commissioners awarded nearly $600,000 in grants to support events over the next year, including $120,000 for Villages entertainment at the Lake Sumter and Brownwood town squares. Gilpin said those grants should continue even though entertainment at the squares abruptly stopped in March due to the Coronavirus.
County Administrator Bradley Arnold said the county could place a moratorium on the tax or repeal it entirely and possibly impose it again later.
Gilpin suggested funds remaining in the tourism development account be used to put a roof on the equestrian center, used for horse events, at the county fairgrounds. He said a roof would allow the center to host concerts and other events.
“It would do a tremendous amount to help the south side of the county,” he said.
Regarding vaccine distribution sites, a letter to governors from the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) director Robert Redfield asks governors to help establish sites for vaccine distribution later this year. The letter was passed on to Florida counties. You can read the letter at this link: HHS Vaccine Letter
The letter does not specify how many vaccination sites would be needed.
Arnold also reported that Sumter County has distributed $47,527 in COVID-19 housing relief funds to 23 people and $203,074 to 24 businesses. Governments receiving relief funds include Sumter County, $106,211; Wildwood, $4,436; and the Sumter County Clerk of Courts, $4,046.
He said the county has recorded 55 deaths from the virus. As of late Tuesday, the county had 14 COVID-19 patients in the hospital with 10 in the intensive care unit and four on ventilators.