Escambia County Commission Chairman Robert Bender talks about the Tourist Development Council and his first term in office.
Our tourism economy has thrived this year. Commissioner Bender said, “We got an update on collections. Every month, except one, for this fiscal year has been record breaking. Knowing how well we did in 2019, it’s great to see that people are coming back. That’s even without the fifth cent.”
He continued, “We’re up double digits in a lot of months with just the four cents. So it’s great. That’s even with a couple of hotels on the beach still down. We’re excited that that means that the people are coming. They’re spending their money here and helping support our local businesses.”
Escambia County Supervisor of Elections David Stafford said he expects to receive the 2020 census data today.
“This has been an unusual in that the census data release has been delayed pretty significantly,” said Stafford.”We can’t do anything until we have that data. And what that data will show is within the confines of the borders of Escambia County – how many residents we have in the county and then in each city and county district.”
Those numbers will be feed to the elections’ office computers and the city, county and school board can decide how to redraw district boundaries.