Daniel Samess, CEO of the Greater Marathon Chamber of Commerce, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on at the Chamber.
It’s kind of a slow time of year for tourism.
Samess said, “We’ve pretty much been pretty status quo. I guess you could say we’re pretty much flat around this time last year, as far as bed tax collections, performance, occupancy, average daily rates, things like that. So kind of steady is the course, as we continue to revert back to normalcy, post COVID, post pandemic, whatever the new normal is right? Because every time we get a little bit normal, something seems to happen. We’re getting into those dog days of summer. It’s still going well.”
Thankfully the state legislature maintained the Tourist Development Councils in the state.
Samess said, “It was definitely scary. The Marathon Chamber worked really hard, lobbying, advocating for our Tourist Development Council and all TDCS throughout the state of Florida, with our state Rep Jim Mooney, as well as our state Senator and other Reps and Senators in the governor’s cabinet throughout the state. It just really makes you scratch your head how certain legislators could come up with certain bills and language that could be so economically devastating to the entire state, it’s literally cutting off your nose to spite your face. The saddest part of this is it’s basic math and arithmetic and it doesn’t work. The goal was to save property tax dollars for homeowners which who doesn’t want that right? Costs are what they are. I totally understand where the governor’s coming from there, but the way they went about this was just asinine, and obtuse. So luckily, it didn’t go anywhere, because it would have actually just increased property taxes within a couple years, and we would have lost hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of jobs, and property values would then go down. So a lose, lose. So we’re expecting certain things to unfortunately come back again next session. It’s just the nature of the beast. Again, there’s not much logic to it, so it’s hard to wrap your head around it, but luckily, it didn’t get anywhere. I do work extremely closely with our TDC and our DAC crew, and they all do a great job. Love working with the good folks at the TDC and the board and DAC members. Those are all either appointed, but they’re all volunteer positions. There’s no compensation, just a lot of work for free and hard work and tough decisions to help our local economy. They’re doing a lot more, even on sustainability, environmental sustainability and really showing how tourism does give back and helps to protect our reefs because of all the monies that are donated to the great nonprofits up and down the Keys that are literally restoring, repairing and re nourishing our reefs, as well as artificial reefs too, which the Chamber is a big advocate for, so a lot of good stuff. I always encourage folks, if you don’t have the information or the data, shoot me a call, an email, I’m happy to get you really good information, connect you with the folks that can, if I don’t have it to help show what it is doing for affordable housing and other things that we definitely need. It helps a lot. I understand the frustrations, too. Of course, nobody likes traffic and waiting in line and whatnot, but it is a necessary that we absolutely need here.”
The Greater Marathon Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon was held today and Representative Jim Mooney provided a recap of the legislative session.
Samess said, “We’re really happy to have Jim, our state rep come down. We always love having Representative Mooney come at least once a year to give us a legislative wrap up, go through all the good, bad, crazy stuff that happened up in Tallahassee. Now that it’s a wrap, obviously, you could talk about the state budget. Jim will talk about a lot of the monies that he worked really hard and our state Senator Ana Maria as well to bring monies down to Monroe County, and our Florida Keys that absolutely trickles here to Marathon and helps a lot of us in a lot of ways we might not be aware of. I know Jim looks forward to interacting with our business members every year, and he’s just always so available to me my board of directors and locals in general, because that’s who Jim is. He grew up in Islamorada and is a business owner and still is. He’s a great guy, and he’s working hard.”
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