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MODERATOR: LaToya Dennis

News Director and Managing Editor, Central Florida Public Media

 

LaToya Dennis began her tenure as news director and managing editor of Central Florida Public Media in 2021. Dennis, an award-winning reporter and editor, leads a newsroom of nine journalists dedicated to connecting and empowering our region through trustworthy independent local journalism.

 

Since landing in Orlando, Dennis has overseen the launch of Central Florida Seen & Heard, a flagship annual series and a weekly news roundup podcast called The Wrap.

 

Dennis is a past president of the Milwaukee Press Club, a member of the Central Florida Association of Black Journalists and sits on the board of directors for the Public Media Journalists Association.

Florida Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith

 

Carlos Guillermo Smith has been a trusted voice for our community in Tallahassee, previously serving in the Florida House of Representatives from 2016 to 2022 before his election to the Florida Senate in November 2024.

 

A graduate of the University of Central Florida, Carlos is a respected civil rights leader who has championed affordable housing, gun safety, Tourist Development Tax reform and funding for the arts.

 

Carlos serves as senior advisor at Equality Florida, an LGBTQ civil rights organization. He also is a member of the board of directors for the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.

 

In the 2025 legislative session, Senator Smith championed legislation allowing for the use of local hotel tax revenue for the expansion of SunRail and LYNX bus service (SB 1114) and to limit public spending of those dollars at Visit Orlando (SB 1110).

Frank Santos, CEO of Rosen Hotels & Resorts

 

Born and raised in Fall River, Massachusetts, Frank Santos got his start in hospitality as a teenager, working as a busboy at the local Holiday Inn. He ascended along the way with multiple promotions under the tutelage of his mentor, Chris Tustin. As he was climbing the ranks at the Holiday Inn, Santos was studying culinary arts at Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School. Cooking had always been one of Santos’s passions and that remains the case to this day.

 

Santos encountered his first real-life crossroads when he was offered a full scholarship at the Culinary Institute of America. At the same time, Tustin offered Santos the opportunity to follow him to Merritt Island and be part of the opening team for a new Holiday Inn. Like most success stories, Santos took a chance on himself and his future by moving to Florida.

 

He thought he would spend two, maybe three years in Florida and then move elsewhere, but in 1975 he was offered the opportunity to be the controller of the Red Carpet Inn on International Drive, as well as the Altamonte Springs Inn and Racquet Club and Lord Chumley’s restaurant. Several years later, Santos became regional controller of five Central Florida hotels.

 

In 1982, Hilton Hotels sought out and appointed Santos as regional controller for Hilton Hotels Orlando/Kissimmee.

 

In September of 1985, a young, rising hotelier named Harris Rosen was looking for someone to fill his Chief Financial Officer (CFO) position at his Orlando-based company. Rosen called Santos, told him about the position and asked for a meeting. Their bond was practically cemented from the start. Santos started the position in January of 1986 and the rest, as they say, is history. In late 2024, Santos was named CEO of Rosen Hotels & Resorts.

 

In the decades that followed, Santos worked hand in hand with Rosen to build the company into the Southeast’s largest independently owned hotel chain. Santos helped oversee the construction and openings of four hotels (Rosen Inn Lake Buena Vista, Rosen Plaza, Rosen Centre and Rosen Shingle Creek), along with multiple renovations and expansion projects. The company has been debt-free for years and years, an achievement few can boast.

 

Santos played a pivotal role in spearheading additional key initiatives such as RosenCare, the company’s award-winning healthcare program, the Tangelo Park and Parramore preschool programs serving families in underserved communities by providing free early education and college scholarships and a decades-long commitment delivering water, medical supplies and housing to the people of Haiti.

 

Santos also worked with Rosen to create the UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management, which is now the nation’s leading hospitality school, the Adam Michael Rosen Foundation, which helps cancer patients and their families and twice, he helped save what is now the Rosen Aquatic &Fitness Center from permanent closure. These efforts further diversified the company’s impact and earned him notable industry recognition, including receiving the first-ever CFO of the Year (Large Company) award from the Orlando Business Journal in 2009.

 

Santos is well known for his community service, his generosity and his longstanding commitment to philanthropy, receiving the Kenneth F. Murrah, Esq. Award as Central Florida’s Outstanding Philanthropist in 2023. He currently serves on the Dr. Phillips for the Performing Arts Board of Directors, as an Emeritus Board member for the Orlando Shakes and the Orlando Family Stage, and as a Diman Bengal Foundation Board member. He has previously served on the boards of directors at the Orlando Philharmonic, Canine Companions, The American Cancer Society and Runway to Hope.

Jane Healy, former managing editor of the Orlando Sentinel

 

Jane Healy’s 40-year newspaper career took her from writing stories for a University of Maryland journalism class to the Pulitzer Prize 17 years later. She began as a “copygirl” in 1971 at the New York Daily News Washington bureau. Assigned occasional stories by the bureau editors, she compiled enough clips to be hired by the Orlando Sentinel in 1973.

 

In her early years there, Jane was a metro reporter covering everything from the cops beat to government and politics, including the initial years of the Tourist Development Tax. In 1981 she was promoted to the editorial board as an editorial writer. She quickly acclimated to that role and was named editorial page editor in 1985. That year she was finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for her Florida’s Shame editorial series, which exposed politicians who were caving into developers and destroying the environment of rural areas in Seminole and Orange Counties. Jane won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing for the ongoing series, which resulted in the rescue of the Wekiva River and Orange County’s eastern rural area. It was the Sentinel’s first Pulitzer. She was a Pulitzer finalist again for the Florida’s Shame series in 2007.

 

In 1994, Jane was named the Sentinel’s managing editor, supervising a newsroom of 380 staffers. After that experience, Jane returned to her love of the editorial page and was again named head of the editorial board and the editorial pages. During that time, the Sentinel branched out to television. That resulted in Jane co-hosting a Sunday show called “For the Record” for six years. In 2008, Jane retired from the Sentinel full time and began a Sunday political column that ran until 2010.

 

In 2023 Mayor Jerry Demings named her co-chair of his task force on the county’s Tourist Development Tax (TDT). At Jane’s urging, the task force recommended that the county support a tourist impact tax, a 1 percent hotel tax that would go toward affordable housing. The mayor and the commission unanimously made this a part of their legislative agenda, the first time they had ever supported expanding use of the tax. It now is an issue in the Legislature.

Tourism Taxes: A Revenue Stream Worth Reimagining
By Judi Hayes
It is, as one panelist said, “the hottest topic of all.” How should Orange County spend the millions of
dollars in taxes paid by tourists on hotel rooms and short-term vacation rentals?
LaToya Dennis, news director and managing editor for Central Florida Public Media, moderated
LWVOC’s Hot Topics panel discussion on the Tourism Development Tax (TDT).
She began with a definition of what the TDT is: a 6 percent tax on lodging like hotel rooms and short-
term rentals. The bed tax is paid by tourists, not by residents. Last year it raised a whopping $384.6
million dollars. But the use of this very large pool of money is limited by law. Orange County has pressing
needs in transportation and affordable housing, but the county leaders can’t use the TDT to solve any of
them without legislative approval. 
The panel was comprised of three people who are familiar with different proposals and how we might
move forward.
 
Jane Healy is the former managing editor of the Orlando Sentinel.  She won a Pulitzer Prize for her
Florida’s Shame editorial series, which exposed politicians who were caving into developers and
destroying the environment of rural areas in Seminole and Orange Counties. In 2023 Mayor Jerry
Demings named her co-chair of the citizen advisory task force on the TDT.
 
Frank Santos is the CEO of Rosen Hotels & Resorts.  He has a long career in the hospitality industry and
joined Rosen in 1986 as CFO before becoming the CEO in 2024.
 
State Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith represents Florida’s 17th District.  He previously served in the Florida
House of Representatives from 2016 to 2022.  Senator Smith is a leading voice for civil rights who has
championed affordable housing, gun safety, TDT reform and funding for the arts.
 
The panelists discussed their various perspectives on the use of tourism taxes and funding sources.
Smith pointed out that 90 cents out of every dollar raised was spent on Visit Orlando, the convention
center or other venues in Orlando, noting that the funds are not going to housing, transportation or
public safety —the resources in our community that are strained by the tourists visiting Orange County.
He has introduced legislation to address the restricted use of the tax money collected from tourists. 
The moderator asked about carve-outs that have excluded Orange County. Healy said she thought it
was due to the strong tourism lobby.
Smith pointed out that Orange County far exceeds all other counties in terms of tourism dollars
collected. 
Santos disagreed with Smith’s approach and discussed the expense of maintaining the tourism industry
in Orange County. He wants to add capacity and charge tourists more without burdening the residents.
Smith said we spend too much on tourism marketing, noting that only 5 percent of Visit Orlando funding
is private and the rest is public. Santos and Smith engaged in a protracted disagreement about the
issue. 

Smith’s proposal stalled in the Legislature on the last day of negotiations during last year’s
session. Healy and Santos are in favor of an additional dedicated one-cent tax for transportation and
affordable housing. Smith believes that a dedicated tax should be accompanied by responsible spending
of the existing tax. 
Santos’ proposal — which he indicates is broadly supported — centers around a separate tax funding. It
does not currently have a legislative sponsor. Santos indicates that several large cities have similar
models. Las Vegas is an anomaly where the visitor’s bureau contributes to the general fund like it does
in Orlando. Las Vegas is Orlando’s top competitor, as Smith pointed out, but Las Vegas uses tourist tax
collections to pay for parks, roads and schools — unlike Orlando. 
 
In closing, Healy noted that historically the Sentinel would not have supported the use of tourist taxes to
invest in community infrastructure; however, after 2003, when the entertainment venues were
established, the Sentinel even pivoted to contemplating investment in other public needs.
Smith said he was encouraged by the discussion of the issue and how local candidates were
campaigning for broader use of tourist tax dollars. One of his proposals requires Visit Orlando to match
their public funding dollar for dollar.
Clearly this is a hot topic that will fuel discussion for years to come!