July 19, 2016 – Capitol News Service
by Matt Galka
His nicknames include Mr. 305 and Mr. Worldwide and one state agency believes rapper Pitbull can draw more people to the state. As Matt Galka tells us, he is getting paid with some of our money…but how much is unknown.
Pitbull’s new song titled “Sexy Beaches,” is an ode to dozens of Florida’s beaches and scantily clad women. State tourism agency Visit Florida hopes it’s also a reason more people come to the sunshine state.
Pitbull is getting paid to attract visitor’s to Florida, we just don’t know how many taxpayer dollars he’s actually getting. The rapper inked a deal with Visit Florida last year. The agency receives around $80 million dollars in taxpayer funding…but the details of the contract are being kept secret with Visit Florida citing they’d be revealing trade secrets.
Barbara Petersen with the First Amendment Foundation says that’s not fair to Floridians.
“Visit Florida is claiming that the amount of taxpayer dollars they’re paying Pitbull to promote the tourism interests of Florida is secret. This is our money…how do we know we are getting our money’s worth if we don’t know what he’s being paid?” she said. [READ MORE]