Tampa Bay Newspapers: Join the fight against oil drilling

Dec. 30. 2009

Florida’s coast-related revenues generate 85 percent of our state’s total tourist related revenues. The $7 billion tourists spend each year in Florida is the engine that drives our economy.

Nearly 1 million Floridians are employed by the state’s tourism industry. Just a 1 percent decrease in Florida’s tourism results in a $39 million loss for we, the Florida tax-paying residents.

The 1993 tanker devastation off Florida’s coast alone cost Pinellas County a 45 percent decrease in state revenue for the following two years. It was income that each and every Florida resident made up for with increased taxes and fees during that time.

Visitors don’t come to Florida to tour our museums. They don’t come to Florida to visit our cathedrals, skyscrapers, historical monuments. And they certainly don’t come to Florida to visit our ski slopes.

According to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources, 85 percent of Florida’s visitors come to the state just to visit our beaches. They come to play in the gulf, which is Florida’s primary industry. How do we put a price on it?

To jeopardize this with visible and contaminating oil rigs just 50 miles off our coast is completely unacceptable, especially since the oil cartels already have hundreds of viable leases 300 miles out in the gulf, which they choose not to use.

Having this omni-present oil catastrophe at bay is no less different than risking the oil contamination of precious cathedrals, historical monuments, national parks and ski slopes throughout the rest of our country. Remember this. As goes Florida’s beaches, so goes Florida’s economy.

If you agree, write or e-mail Gov. Charlie Crist, State Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Treasure Island; State Rep. Jim Frishe, R-Belleair Bluffs; or Florida Senate president Jeff Atwater with your thoughts on this issue.

Phil Collins

Vice Mayor Treasure Island