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Visit Florida is a well-funded powerhouse of tourism for the state of Florida, and given how much of a destination spot Florida has consistently been for years, no one would expect anything to threaten financial stability of an agency capitalizing so efficiently on such a secure industry. Nevertheless, the Florida House of Representatives turned their growing concerns into actions last week as though spurred by a story in the news linking Visit Florida and Miami-based rapper, Pitbull. They’re advancing a measure that cuts Visit Florida’s funding by twothirds while enforcing unprecedented transparency.

Rep. Paul Renner (R-Palm Coast) explains why he and other lawmakers take issue with the way Visit Florida operates, especially in light of recent events in which a lack of transparency on the part of Visit Florida compelled the Speaker of the Florida House Richard Corcoran to sue Pitbull:

“We want to get at a contract—and the Pitbull contract has been the one in the news, so I’ll use that as an example—that the initial response was, ‘We’re not gonna share that information with you because it’s subject to a public records exemption.’ This bill eliminates that public records exemption.”

Several deals with Visit Florida drew the scrutiny of lawmakers to look into how taxpayer money was being spent, and it seemed to make representatives feel that Visit Florida was being rather cavalier with taxpayer dollars. For example, Fulham Football Club disclosed a deal with Visit Florida wherein $1.25 million were spent to imbue their kits with the words “Visit Florida.” The International Motor Sports Association also revealed a $2.9 million deal to put the same words on racecars.

It all blew up, however, when lawmakers attempted to get a similar disclosure on a contract between Visit Florida and none other than Mr. 305 himself, Pitbull. The agency refused to disclose the information, according to Rep. Renner, which they were legally authorized to refuse on the basis of a public records exemption. Rep. Corcoran sued Pitbull’s production agency for disclosure of the contract, however, which prompted Pitbull to release a copy of the contract on Twitter.

This $1.1 million deal pushed state congressmen to draft a bill that aims to significantly defund Visit Florida. The chairman of Visit Florida reassures that the agency is taking steps to reform its business practices due to all the scrutiny over its lack of transparency, and an important part of this reform is the new commitment not to enter into any confidentiality agreements like the one signed with Pitbull. Additionally, Visit Florida has a new CEO, Ken Lawson, who previously headed the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.