Hotel Cash Registers Ringing Again

ORLANDO-The 5% tax revenue from Orange County’s 120,000 hotel and motel rooms are up for the fourth successive month compared to 2002 periods, reports Orange County comptroller Martha O. Haynie.

Her office collected $8.4 million in November, surpassing the November 2002 mark by 10.5% and also eclipsing Haynie’s own budget project by 10.1%. Collections for the county’s fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2003 totaled $93.3 million, up from $91.6 million in 2002 but still below the $104.8 million in 2001 and the record $108.2 million in 2000.

The annual numbers tumbled immediately following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist strikes in New York and Washington, DC and only began to recover four months ago, according to the comptroller’s statistics.Haynie calls the November collections “strong” and says “this news is a nice way to start the new fiscal year.”