Orange County Comptroller Martha O. Haynie expected September's collections for the last month of the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 to be up more than the recorded $5.8 million, Haynie's office tells GlobeSt.com. That number was the lowest of the year, down from August's $6.5 million, the lowest at that time.

The revenue comes from a 5% tax added to each of the county's 119,000 hotel/motel rooms. The bulk of the money is used to pay down debt on the $750 million, one-million-sf expansion of the Orange County Convention Center that hopes to be at 2.2 million sf of exhibition/meeting space in early 2003.

Tax revenue fell 32% in October 2001, a deficit the county's hospitality industry is still trying to overcome. The county is gradually recovering from the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, analysts and real estate professionals tell GlobeSt.com, but the numbers aren't yet showing up on the books.