On Thursday, the Lee County Tourist Development Council approved $1.15 million for beach and shoreline protection on Fort Myers Beach for the next year. It was part of a $12.9 million distribution by the TDC.
Fort Myers Beach Marine Projects Operations Manager Chadd Chustz said, “The TDC grant will provide funding for the town to continue to maintain our beach accesses and preserve the natural beauty of our beaches and shoreline.”
The town will also receive $22,267 in TDC funds to repair the Albatross beach access.
And, Lee County was awarded $237,540 to operate the seasonal free tram on the beach.
TDC funds are collected from a 5% “bed tax” Lee County places on all hotel rooms and vacation rentals and the money must be used for tourism related purposes and marketing to bring tourists to the area. Each year the TDC approves funding for the maintenance of Lee County beaches, for beach renourishment projects, and for beach and shoreline capital projects such as piers, boardwalks, parks and re-vegetation.
The preliminary resort tax collected for March 2026 was $9,567,291, a 19.0% increase over March 2025 preliminary collections of $8,042,582. Fiscal year-to-date preliminary tourist tax collections are $34,872,419, an increase of 22.9% year-over year.
Last year Lee County collected a total of $46.8 million in bed tax money. In fiscal year 2021-2022, that number was $66.5 million.
Seems like FMB should get more of those funds. What percent is generated on FMB?