WHAT IS YOUR OPINION?
Every visitor to Indian River County who spends the night at a hotel pays a four percent “bed tax” to the county on top of the room rate. That comes to about $3 million in revenue (in a normal year) for the County. Approximately 60 percent of that revenue is collected from hotels within the City of Vero Beach. Yet, the City does not receive any of those revenues, nor does the City determine how any of that money is spent. Yet, all tourists (and Indian River County residents) use City beaches maintained and staffed at City taxpayer expense. City Council member Laura Moss has been vocal about fairness on this subject since 2017; however, nothing has changed.
There are reasons this apparent inequity has continued, but what do you think about it? (respond here or at irguardian.insidevero@gmail.com)
Indian River Guardian 
I’m sure the county government and its residents will quickly see how unfair this is, since they were so crazed about paying utility fees to the Vero Beach. And now that there is no income for the City, taxes will have to go up, and there’s no doubt the county will want to help out.
Cough, cough, (notreallyjustkidding) cough cough!
So the question not being asked is: Who is the authority that is stopping this money from being distributed fairly to Vero Beach, and what is the law being used to stop the distribution?
The authority is clearly the County Commission. And with regard to City of Vero taxes, the last IRNA City Councils (Winger and Company), total City taxes increased almost 50% BEFORE the sale and the City millage has decreased (very slightly) since…