Mayor: Beach generates a third of county tourism dollars; wants more tourist tax back

At the June 9 meeting, Mayor Beth Sweeny said that given how small St. Augustine Beach is, it is always amazing to her that about a third of the county's tourism dollars come from the Beach, and she told staff to keep asking the Tourism Development Council for project dollars.

She said the city has already been good about submitting projects, but "we're certainly generating it here, and I would love if we can bring more of it back to our community." Nick Binder asked commissioners to look at leftover tourist-development tax money for a rubberized surface at Splash Park, and if not that, to use the rest of the TDC money rather than let it go back.

No new tourist-tax award was voted that night. The ask was posture: keep lining up projects so more of the tourist-development tax generated on the Beach is spent on the Beach.