Tourism Tax Revenue
Did you know that there is a special tax in Santa Rosa County specifically for visitors who stay in lodging in the area? This is called the lodging tax (or bed tax) and Navarre generates 75% of this tax revenue for the county (reference). This tax is earmarked to be spent on promoting tourism through various means across the county.
Unfortunately, Navarre residents get very little say in how these funds are spent. Because it is incorporated, Gulf Breeze has its share of the bed tax given back to spend as the residents see fit but the revenue that Navarre generates is all managed by the county with little regard for residents’ wishes (reference).
Profits over People
The county has made it very clear that the goal of the bed tax is to drive more and more tourism to Navarre Beach. This is because the beach is a major tax generator for the county. While tourism is good for our beach economy, most residents will tell you that the amount of traffic and issues caused by tourism will only grow if we keep increasing the number of tourists year over year (reference).
Last year the Navarre area generated about five million dollars in bed tax revenue for the county. That money is being spent on a variety of projects, some of which are in Navarre but many of them are in other parts of the county. Concerningly, over one million dollars of bed taxes are being spent by the county every year, marketing Navarre Beach across the country to drive more tourism to the area (reference).
If Navarre were to incorporate, the millions of dollars in tax revenue could stay here in Navarre where it is generated and the citizens of Navarre would be the ones deciding how it is spent. It is important to place the decision making power in the hands of the people of Navarre instead of county officials.
