Seminole chamber loses city grant after years of declining funding

SEMINOLE — For the first time in recent years, the Greater Seminole Area Chamber of Commerce won’t receive grant money from the city next year.

The chamber’s request for $15,000 was excluded from City Manager Ann Toney-Deal’s recommended $36.7 million budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year, which the City Council unanimously approved Sept. 23.

The grant’s elimination follows three years of declining chamber funding from the city, from $20,000 in 2024 to $10,000 in 2025 to $7,500 this year.

And Mayor Leslie Waters warned that other nonprofit grants could be on the chopping block if voters approve a constitutional amendment on November's ballot that would expand Florida's homestead property tax exemption.

Chamber Executive Director Randi Nash-Ortiz addressed the council ahead of the final budget vote and made a case for the organization's value to the community. She described the financial pressures facing local businesses and the chamber itself.

Nash-Ortiz said active membership had declined from 282 in the third quarter to 270 in the fourth, while the chamber’s retention rate fell from 92.1% to 89.5%.

“Your partnership with the chamber means a lot,” she told councilors.

Nash-Ortiz said the chamber continues to provide networking and educational programs, business resources and partnerships with nonprofit and civic organizations.

Councilor Kadi Hendricks Tubbs said the chamber issue was one reason she voted against the tentative budget at the council's first hearing Sept. 9, when several chamber supporters urged councilors to restore the funding.

Tubbs said she later met with the chamber president to discuss ways the city and organization could work together. She joined the rest of the council in approving the final budget, which maintains the property tax rate at 2.48 mills.

As The Pinellas Current reported last week, city officials initially offered no public explanation for eliminating the grant.

But during the final budget hearing, Waters offered the clearest explanation yet, pointing to the chamber’s status as a business organization and the financial uncertainty facing the city.

Waters noted that Largo pays for a chamber membership, as does Seminole, but does not provide additional taxpayer funding. She suggested the chamber could raise additional money by increasing its membership or dues.

“We can't fund every nonprofit organization that we think highly of,” the mayor said.

Waters also pointed to Amendment 3, the proposed expansion of Florida's homestead property tax exemption, as another source of budget pressure.

Later in the meeting, while discussing the potential effects of the amendment, she warned that passage could mean an end to city grants altogether.

“Which means we won't be giving out grants,” Waters said. “We won't be supporting organizations here, there and otherwise. We won't have the money.”

The budget provides $30,000 in grants to more than a dozen other nonprofit organizations, including $5,000 to the Seminole Historical Society, $3,000 to Meals on Wheels and $2,500 to Pinellas Hope, which assists the homeless.