“Government of the Cruise Lines, by the Cruise Lines and for the Cruise Lines… “

And so it continues… the latest volley has been fired in the “Sky-is-Falling” scare campaign over the devastation that will occur if Key West does not allow mega-ships into its harbor. The Florida Department of Transportation presented “Florida’s Cruise Industry: A Statewide Perspective” this past week at the Cruise Lines International Association’s (CLIA) Leadership Forum in Miami. Since it was written for their benefit, it seems only right that it was presented to them. CLIA is the world’s largest cruise ship trade organization and lobbyist.

The FDOT upped the ante, claiming in this latest salvo, that Key West’s failure to accommodate larger ships “could result in a significant loss of cruise business to the state of Florida.”

The state report reads like a cruise industry “wish list”, generously recommending benefits to an industry which utilizes tax-dodging schemes to make billions of dollars in profits while paying virtually nothing in taxes. The recommended actions effectively reduce costs and improve profitability for the cruise industry, while passing economic burdens and financials risks onto the public. This is what state government has fallen to under Governor Rick Scott.

Cruise lines are now making demands that would even make professional sports franchises blush, regarding public investments to promote lucrative private profits. It only makes sense, since the world’s largest cruise company, Carnival, is chaired by Micky Arison, who also owns the Miami Heat… and the Heat hasn’t exactly been a slacker when it comes to receiving public subsidies.

One of FDOT’s more surprising recommendations is to reduce cruise ship costs by lowering or eliminating the employment benefits received by local harbor pilots:

“One of the major concerns expressed by severalcruise line executives is the costs associated with portcalls, specifically, pilot cost…The increased size automaticallyincreases the piloting charge even though many of thetechnology investments allow a ship to almost steeritself and ultimately pose less of a risk than the older,smaller vessels.”

“Successfully negotiating changes to the piloting fees has proven difficult. The Florida Pilot’s Association is a self-governed state association that sets its own rates. This differs from the structure in many states and countries where the pilots are employees of a state or port, with some countries even allowing the master of the vessel to serve as a pilot.”

“The reality is that the financial future of pilots, like others providing services to the cruise industry in Florida, depends upon a continuing workload, which will disappear should cruise activity migrate to another state.”

The threat of “reduce your fees or we’ll leave…” demonstrates how the FDOT is merely shilling for the cruise industry. For the Scott administration to advocate that government take over the pricing of private services, or even threaten the elimination of local jobs, in order to reduce costs and improve cruise profits which aren’t even taxed, exposes just how cozy they are with this industry. One has to wonder how the Key West pilots, who contributed so generously in support of the Channel Widening Study, feel about being thrown under the bus.

Perhaps the most surreal claim in the report is that Key West’s hesitancy to commit to channel widening “is being viewed by cruise lines as a lack of commitment on the part of Key West to encourage cruise business, as it is difficult for cruise lines to make deployment decisions and commitments without knowing if their ships will be able to be accommodated.”

What makes absolutely no sense is that even if the city had moved forward with the study, it was widely accepted that it would be at least fifteen to twenty years before the first larger ship would be able to take advantage of a wider channel. The idea that cruise lines can’t make deployment decisions because they don’t know what the conditions will be in twenty years is laughable.  They don’t even know what their fleet will be in twenty years.

Furthermore, the cruise lines are notorious for making no commitments whatsoever – to the great dismay of many American ports which invested tens of millions of dollars in publicly-funded cruise terminals, only to see the cruise lines abandon them within a couple of years. When Carnival dropped Key West from several itineraries in the middle of the year – in favor of a private island in the Bahamas — there were no financial remedies offered.

Elsewhere in the report, a chart addresses the state’s role in “helping the industry address key factors impacting their operation.” (Table 8, page 21)

One key factor identified is that “fewer than 5 percent of the U.S. population cruises annually.” The table suggests that the industry should react by offering “discounted rates used for the remaining cabin space.”  In other words, the FDOT recommendation is that cruise lines increase their revenues and profitability.

On the other hand, the state’s role should include:

• Large-scale advertising campaign to encourage new passengers
• Incorporate cruise business into already present campaigns, i.e.    VISITFLORIDA.com and Sunny.org
• Provide incentives to Florida residents and first-time passengers

All of the direct costs are borne by the public sector, while all of the direct benefits accrue to the private sector.

The same chart suggests that the state should further “help” the industry by supporting dredging projects and lobbying for federal funds, lobbying the Army Corps of Engineers to support cruise-related dredging projects, creating new berth facilities, and support additional landside infrastructure.

Perhaps the most unusual recommendation is that the state should, “Assist in the litigation process to provide visa waivers” for “some international passengers denied visas for the U.S.” It’s really hard to imagine that the FDOT recommends that the State of Florida should sue the Federal Government on behalf of foreign cruise passengers who can’t get visas. But then again, it’s abundantly clear that this report was written for and largely by the CLIA.

One can’t help but notice that every recommendation to the state is to invest public dollars for the direct benefit of private companies, even though the public benefit is only indirect at best.

Before even getting into the recommendation, “in order to continue to accommodate the growing cruise ship design and fleet, [Key West’s] channel must be widened and deepened,” the entire presentation should be rejected as industry propaganda.

The report is rife with unsupported conclusions and undocumented data. For example, it introduces a higher passenger expenditure figure than has been previously reported anywhere, however there is no attribution for the figure.

“Port-of-call expenditures currently only affect the Port of Key West and, to a lesser extent, Port Canaveral. For Key West, this is the primary source of income from the cruise industry as no ships are home-ported there. Port-of-call passengers spend an average of $ 123.58 per visit, including tours and excursions… with crew spending an average of $ 47.75 per visit.”  (page 17)

Suddenly, an inflated new figure appears with no source. You can be sure, however, that the cruise lobby will now use $ 124 as the passenger spending figure, except now they will cite the FDOT as the source.

The biggest concern over FDOT’s threats and hyperbolic reaction is that they will attempt to usurp Key West’s home rule powers to regulate for the protection of the public health, safety, morals, and welfare. Could the state decide that the perceived threat to their economy outweighs the municipality’s right to self-regulate?

As Key West The Newspaper is famous for wrapping up… “Stay Tuned!”