St. Johns County's Tourist Development Council voted Tuesday, Aug. 18, to recommend cutting $50,000 that had been buying extra PLAYERS Championship tickets and food for county employees, calling the spending a misuse of hotel-tax dollars meant to attract tourists, St. Johns Citizen reported.

The vote trims the county's proposed fiscal year 2027 PLAYERS partnership from $325,000 to $275,000. The $50,000 savings would go into tourism reserves.

TDC Vice Chair Charles Cox told the council the partnership was originally built to host travel-industry influencers, conference planners, business prospects and hotel representatives who could steer visitors to St. Johns County. He said the extra $50,000, layered on top of a base agreement that already provides about 50 tournament tickets, had instead gone toward perks for county staff over the past two or three years.

Cox said the partnership's tourism-promotion language was written specifically to qualify the spending for TDC funds. He alleged the county had spent the money "to use it as an employee benefit for county staff to go hang out at the TPC."

Cox also questioned whether spending bed-tax revenue on employee benefits complies with Florida Statute § 125.0104, the Local Option Tourist Development Act, which requires that tourist-development tax dollars be spent only on activities whose "main purposes" include attracting tourists.

The bed tax is collected from guests at hotels and short-term rentals across St. Johns County.

Cox said the St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra & The Beaches Visitors and Convention Bureau had little influence over recent guest lists and should resume managing the hospitality program. County administration did not provide a response to Cox's allegations in the St. Johns Citizen report.

The TDC's recommendation now goes to the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners, which holds final authority over the budget. The BCC's first public hearing on the FY 2027 budget is scheduled for 5:01 p.m. Sept. 3, with final adoption set for Sept. 15, according to county budget documents.