Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/285258
Morning walkers join sunbathers on Siesta Public Beach on a recent March day. Photo by Rachel Hackney MARCH 2013 BREAKS MONTHLY RECORD FOR TOURIST TAX COLLECTIONS NEWS BRIEFS March 2013 set a record for the highest monthly income of Tourist Development Tax (TDT) revenue in Sarasota County history, county Tax Collector Barbara Ford-Coates told members of the Sarasota County Tourist Development Council during their March 20 meeting. Ford-Coates was presenting her report on TDT collections for the 2013 fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30, 2013. The total for March 2013 was $2,713,537, according to a chart Ford-Coates' office pro- vided to the TDC members. The revenue for December 2012 was up "a whopping 20 percent" over the amount the county collected during December 2011, she added. The total revenue for the FY 2013 was $14,857,097, the chart shows, compared to the FY 2012 figure of $13,977,796. So far in FY 2014, TDT revenue is up about 12 percent over the previous fiscal year, she pointed out. As of Dec. 31, 2013, Ford-Coates contin- ued, the county had 15,332 rental units, up 5 percent over the 2012 figure. "It is the first significant increase in units since 2009," she said. That hike is primarily a result of more hotel and motel rooms being available, she noted. However, condominiums still generate more TDT revenue than any other group of properties: 44.87 percent compared to 33.95 percent for hotel and motel rooms. Still, Ford-Coates told the TDC members, with more hotels planned in the City of Sarasota