Visit Florida quizzed on spending habits

The fallout from the investigation into the spending habits of Visit Florida continues, with senators spending a second day quizzing officials about their decision to employ a Missouri vendor to field telephone calls about Sunshine State vacations.
Yesterday, as reported in the Palm Beach Post, they questioned executives of the non-profit corporation, which receives more than half of its cash funding from the state, about salaries, travel expenses and the $587,000 contract which has since been canceled and will now go to a Florida-based business.
The report read: Senate Majority Leader Alex Diaz de la Portilla, who serves on the committee, said he telephoned the Kansas City-based vendor Tuesday afternoon and four out of five times an operator was unable to tell him where the capitol of Florida is located.
Visit Florida received $35million from the state this year, and Gov. Charlie Crist put back in $5 million lawmakers had tried to take away for advertising during a budget-cutting exercise earlier this year.
The Senate Transportation and Economic Development Appropriations Committee today learned that at least one Visit Florida executive earned a $50,000 bonus last year and that the five highest paid officials there earn collectively more than $800,000 annually. Visit Florida president Bud Nocera earns $222,000 per year.
Crist said he expected the salaries to be trimmed as lawmakers are struggling to come up with ways to handle a $5 billion spending gap in next year's budget and deal with a $700 million shortfall before the end of this fiscal year in June.
"This is not a time when high salaries are the kind of order of the day. I think we'll probably see some reductions," Crist said. He said he would defer to the legislature regarding whether some executives should be fired.
Visit Florida also spent more than $1million for staff to travel internationally to promote the state, officials told the committee.
And they paid $500,000 for non-employees - travel agents, meeting planners and others - who don't live in Florida to visit the area.