How Bay County, FL Doubled Its Tourist Development Tax Collection

For Bay County, my task is to lead a team in collection and enforcement for the 5% Bay County tourist development tax. And that’s been elected by our board of county commissioners from an option by the state. It’s taken from local tourism and then put back into the community to help fund further local tourism. And so there is twenty percent of that that goes directly to beach renourishment.

There is a great deal that goes into beautification projects, general beach maintenance, security during high business times of the year like spring break. So it does a lot to fund the community. Greater portions of it have been saved up to be put towards things like a new sports park that continues to drive tourism in our community over its establishment three years ago. Since implementing Neumo in our enforcement practices, our collection processes have doubled in our income. And sometimes that can make the difference between being a few percent under from last year and a few percent over. So that’s a lot of difference to the board.