Visit Florida gets millions in state money but little public oversight

Surprise! The same folks at Visit Florida who won’t tell you how much Pitbull is paid to be the state’s tourism ambassador also don’t want to talk about the money they’re spending.

The Orlando Sentinel reports the public-private state tourism agency will get $78 million this year in taxpayer money, but has little oversight from state officials and bars its contracts from the public eye. Visit Florida “hasn’t been subjected to the in-depth government audits that other state agencies undergo each year,” the Sentinel says. 

“Taxpayers have paid thousands of dollars for Chinese and other foreign journalists to vacation in the Keys and unknown amounts of money on secret contracts for celebrities, race car drivers and soccer teams to promote the Sunshine State,” according to the Sentinel. 

Read the rest of the Sentinel’s story here. 

This article appears in Mar 23-29, 2016.