Collier bed tax referendum Nov. 3: 5% to 6% tourist tax

Collier County's bed tax goes to a countywide vote on November 3, and the question on the ballot is whether visitors pay a sixth penny to finish the Paradise Coast Sports Complex

Money & World

The Editorial Team · August 10, 2026

A silver call bell sitting alone at the left of a dark counter, lit warmly against a plain amber wall. Large lettering on the wall behind is blurred past reading and no word can be made out. No person, no sign and no place are identifiable. A generic lodging photograph, not a picture of any Collier County hotel or rental.

Photo: Mikhail Nilov / Pexels

What it changes

The first thing to be clear about is what this is not. Early voting is running in Collier right now, through August 15, for the August 18 primary, and the bed tax question is not on that ballot. It is a November 3 question, and a vote cast this week does not touch it. The second thing is who pays. The tourist development tax falls on rentals of six months or less, which is to say hotel rooms, condominium stays, vacation rentals and the rest of the short term market, and the Clerk's description of the mechanism is that whoever receives the rental payment collects the tax and remits it to the Collier County Tax Collector, which passes it to the county each month after administrative costs. A Collier homestead owner does not pay it on their own house and it is not part of a property tax bill. That is the reason supporters, including Commissioner Burt Saunders, describe it to residents as a tax on visitors. For a Collier resident the stake is therefore not the bill but the spending. The county's estimate, in the Clerk's own words, is that the sixth penny raises about 9.7 million dollars a year from January 1, 2027. Gulfshore Business reports the county putting the remaining build out of the Paradise Coast Sports Complex at 38 to 44 million dollars for more fields and 45 to 70 million dollars for an indoor facility, which is between 83 and 114 million dollars of work against a stream of under 10 million dollars a year. Those two numbers together are the real question on the ballot: not whether the penny finishes the complex, which on the county's own arithmetic it does not do quickly, but whether the county funds the remainder from visitors over a long horizon or from somewhere else. There is a third thing worth reading before November, and it is the one the opposition is actually raising. Danielle Hudson of the Naples Area Board of Realtors told Gulfshore Business the association objects to raising the cost of the lodging and short term rental market and separately objects to the absence of a sunset provision. County communications director John Mullins confirmed to the same outlet that there is no sunset, and that the sixth penny would stay until the commission or another referendum removed it. So this is a permanent change to the rate being decided in a single vote, which is a different proposition from a levy that expires and has to be re justified. For anyone who owns or manages a short term rental in Collier, the operational consequence is narrow and dated. If the measure passes, the rate collected on bookings for stays beginning January 1, 2027 goes from 5 percent to 6 percent, on top of state and local sales tax, and the combined charge on a short term stay rises from the 11 percent Gulfshore Business reports today to 12 percent. On a 468 dollar peak season room that is about 4.68 dollars a night. Whether that changes anyone's booking decision is contested, and the two views on the record are opinions rather than findings: Shelton Weeks of Florida Gulf Coast University told the outlet he expects the effect to be negligible in a luxury market with strong demand, and the realtors' association told the same outlet its members are already worried about affordability and competitiveness. The county has money set aside to explain the question without arguing it. Commissioners approved 150,000 dollars from the general fund in December for a voter information effort, and Mullins said state law lets a county inform but not advocate. The first of up to ten community meetings is scheduled for 6 to 7.30 in the evening on Monday, August 24, at North Collier Regional Park on Livingston Road.

Collier County voters will decide on November 3 whether to raise the county's tourist development tax from 5 percent to 6 percent.

The mechanics of the tax sit in a public explainer from the Collier County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller. Chapter 125 of the Florida Statutes lets counties levy a tourist development tax on short term accommodation, defined as stays of six months or less, and it reaches hotel rooms, apartments, condominiums, mobile homes and vacation rentals alike. Whoever is paid for the rental collects the tax, tracks it and sends it to the Collier County Tax Collector, which passes the money to the county each month after administrative costs. Collier levies 5 percent today, and the Clerk states that current county policy directs most of what it raises to beach renourishment and beach park facilities.

The referendum is the product of a board decision recorded in that same document. On May 27, 2025, the Board of County Commissioners voted to approve consideration of an amendment, and the referendum Florida law requires with it, imposing an additional one percent as a high impact tourism destination, and directed the County Attorney to draft the ballot language. The Clerk puts the sixth penny at an estimated 9.7 million dollars a year in additional collections, taking effect on January 1, 2027 if voters approve it. The board's stated objective was the Paradise Coast Sports Complex, along with other tourism related spending.

The campaign around that question was reported by Therese McDevitt at Gulfshore Business. According to that report, the county puts current collections at roughly 48 to 50 million dollars a year at 5 percent, and estimates the additional penny at close to 10 million dollars more. Visitors now pay a combined 11 percent in state and local taxes on short term lodging, and the report illustrates the change as about 4.68 dollars a night on a 468 dollar peak season room in the Naples area.

Business groups are split. Gulfshore Business reports that the Naples Area Board of Realtors opposes the increase and that the Greater Naples Chamber and the Collier County chapter of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association support it. Danielle Hudson, the realtors' association vice president of public policy, told the outlet the group opposes raising costs in the short term rental and lodging market at a point when members are already concerned about affordability and competitiveness, and separately raised the absence of a sunset provision. John Mullins, the county's communications director, confirmed to the outlet that the sixth penny would carry no sunset and would stand unless the commission or another referendum repealed it.

The unfinished part of the sports complex is what the money is aimed at. Per the Gulfshore Business report, county estimates put the remaining cost at 38 to 44 million dollars for additional sports fields and 45 to 70 million dollars for a new indoor facility. The complex today has nine synthetic turf fields, a 3,500 seat stadium, an open air fitness pavilion, concessions and a 13 acre man made lake. A fourth phase would add 11 multipurpose fields and supporting infrastructure, and a fifth would add the indoor fieldhouse.

Commissioners set aside 150,000 dollars from the general fund in December for a voter information campaign, according to the same report, which quotes Mullins on the constraint that state law permits a county to inform voters about a ballot measure but not to campaign for it. The first of up to ten community meetings is scheduled for 6 to 7.30 in the evening on Monday, August 24, at North Collier Regional Park on Livingston Road in North Naples.

This question is not on the ballot Collier voters are casting now. Early voting for the August 18 primary runs through August 15, and the Collier County Supervisor of Elections lists no November referendum yet.

Collier County's bed tax goes to a countywide vote on November 3, and the question on the ballot is whether visitors pay a sixth penny to finish the Paradise Coast Sports Complex

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