Visit Florida budget cut vetoed by governor
Florida’s governor Rick Scott has blocked a move to slash the state’s tourism funding and instead proposed a new budget of $76 million.
Scott vetoed the part of Florida’s overall budget, approved by the state’s legislature last month, that would have cut the tourism marketing group’s funding by 67% to just $25 million.
He has now called a special session with legislators to discuss other changes to the budget.
Scott said ‘there needs to be legislation that allows us to market our state for tourism and grow jobs’.
The tourism body has been under fire since last year following the revelation that it had paid rapper Pitbull $1 million to promote the state, which led to the resignation of Visit Florida’s CEO in January.
"This special session will secure Florida’s place as the premier tourist destination in America while ensuring that Visit Florida is completely open, accountable and transparent to the taxpayer," Scott said.
The session is scheduled to start tomorrow and is due to last until Friday.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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