SESSION WATCH
Died SENATE · SESSION 2026

No. SB 446

Large-scale County Destination Marketing Organizations
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SPONSOR
Smith
FILED BY
Carlos Guillermo Smith — District 17, Democrat [search donations]
EFFECTIVE
7/1/2026
DIED IN
Commerce and Tourism

Filed under Local Government.

PROVIDED SUMMARY

Large-scale County Destination Marketing Organizations; Defining the term “large-scale county destination marketing organization”; requiring large-scale county destination marketing organizations to register with the Department of State; requiring a one-to-one match of private to public contributions to fund large-scale county destination marketing organizations, etc.

Full bill text →

Plain English Summary

AI-GENERATED
Requires large county tourism agencies to match public money 1-to-1.

County destination marketing organizations with a $5 million or larger annual budget must now register with the Department of State, which will list them in a public directory on its website.

These large organizations must raise one dollar of private contributions for every public dollar they receive, counting cash, service fees, cooperative advertising, and in-kind promotional support as private funds.

Money from government entities, or from groups that got more than half their revenue from public sources last year, doesn't count toward the private side of that match.

An organization that falls short must return every unmatched public dollar to the counties or municipalities that contracted with it, by June 30 each year.

KEY PROVISIONS
§ 1 New '$5 million-plus' subclass of destination marketing organizations majors. 288.12267(1)

AIA 'large-scale county destination marketing organization' is defined as any county destination marketing organization under s. 288.005 with an annual operating budget of $5 million or more, singling out the largest agencies for the new rules in this section.

“refers only to such organizations or agencies with an annual operating budget of $5 million or more” bill text, line 30 →
§ 2 Private contributions must match public funding dollar for dollar majors. 288.12267(3)

AIA large-scale county destination marketing organization must receive one dollar of qualifying private contributions for every dollar of state and local public appropriations it receives.

“A one-to-one match is required of private to public contributions to a large-scale county destination marketing organization” bill text, line 38 →
§ 3 Government-funded contributions don't count toward the private match majors. 288.12267(3)(a)

AIContributions from a governmental entity, or from any entity that got more than half its revenue from public sources in the prior fiscal year, are not treated as private contributions when calculating the required match.

“Contributions from a governmental entity or from an entity that received more than 50 percent of its revenue in the previous fiscal year from public” bill text, line 77 →
§ 4 Unmatched public money must be returned by June 30 majors. 288.12267(3)(b)

AIIf an organization fails to meet the one-to-one match, it must return every unmatched public dollar, by June 30 of each fiscal year, to the treasuries of the counties or municipalities that contracted with it.

“must, by June 30 of each fiscal year, revert all unmatched public contributions to the treasuries of the corresponding counties or municipalities” bill text, line 86 →
§ 5 Must register with the Department of State moderates. 288.12267(2)

AIA large-scale county destination marketing organization must register with the Department of State, and the department must publish a directory of all such organizations operating in Florida on its website.

“the department shall maintain a directory on its website of all large-scale county destination marketing organizations operating in this state” bill text, line 35 →
TIMELINE
3/13/2026
Died in Commerce and Tourism
1/13/2026
Introduced
12/1/2025
Referred to Commerce and Tourism; Appropriations Committee on...
11/12/2025
Filed
STATUTES IT CHANGES
s. 288.12267
+508 / −0