Orange County Commission funds projects for UCF, Convention Center, arts and cultural grants

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. - Orange County has $900 million to spend.

The commission met Tuesday to discuss how to allocate funds from its Tourism Development Tax. After months of meetings leading up to this one, plus hours of presentations and back-and-forth questions and answers, the commission addressed about half of the proposals on the table. 

There was some forward motion for how revenue from the tourism development tax is going to be used.

The commission agreed on Tuesday that the Orange County Convention Center is getting $560 million to fund part 5-A of its expansion plan. That will include 60,000 square feet of meeting space, an 80,000-square-foot ballroom, and a grand entrance.

The commission approved $90 million over nine years for the University of Central Florida. The school’s sports program wants a new stadium tower. The county also chose to increase its contributions to its arts and cultural grants.

FOX 35 News asked Mayor Jerry Demings after the meeting how he was feeling about the decisions.

"This is my home, and I feel pretty good about the decisions made today because it’s an investment in our community," he answered.

There’s still plenty of money left over, but the commission decided to wait before deciding how to spend it. District 5 Commissioner Emily Bonilla argued that the county should gather more data before moving forward with its decisions.

"We don’t have that information, we don’t have the evidence, we don’t have the numbers to make sure that we are making the best decision economically and socially for our communities," said Commissioner Bonilla.

The commission tabled the discussion about funding requests from Camping World Stadium, the Amway Center, and the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

Some of the people who went up for public comment want the money used on different things entirely.  Janet Buford-Johnson, for instance, wants money to rebuild Orlo Vista.

"It’s been one year since Ian destroyed our community," said Buford-Johnson. "Knowing that people have suffered, some have died, there’s a lot of things that are going on in our community, and not being able to change it, and not having the strength to do everything that needs to be done – that’s my passion now."

Mayor Demings says the budget year that just started on October 1st has money set aside to address issues of homelessness, high rent costs, and other issues Buford-Johnson expressed concern over.

"I can reassure our community, we wrestle with those issues every day," the Mayor told FOX 35. 

The commission also agreed unanimously that it wants to cut some of the funding provided to visit Orlando. They don’t know yet how much; that’ll be decided at some point in the next few weeks.