By Debbie Carson, Online EditorSEBASTIAN — The polls opened at 7 a.m. today with Sebastian voters facing an array of choices for the three open council seats and a referendum proponents say will make the city more business friendly.Eight candidates are running for three seats on the Sebastian City Council. Two are incumbents Andrea Coy and Eugene Wolff. The others are challengers who include David DeVirgilio, Bob McPartlan, Al Paternoster, Lisanne Monier Robinson, Joe Scozzari and Don Wright.
Along with selecting three candidates, voters will be asked whether or not they support the city’s tax abatement referendum.The referendum asks voters if the city government should have authority to grant property tax exemptions to new businesses that create jobs and to businesses that expand and create jobs.Supporters say that the tax abatement referendum, if approved, would be used as an incentive to bring new jobs and businesses into the city.And while everyone running for Sebastian City Council has expressed support for the measure, candidate Joe Scozzari has voiced concerns regarding the loss of tax dollars from those participating businesses and how that could affect the city’s bottom line.Candidates have said that the tax abatement could be implemented in a number of ways, including a sliding scale that depends on how long the business would participate, the number of employees the business would hire and the wages those employees would earn.The polls will close at 7 p.m. and you can check back with VeroNews.com throughout the evening to get all the latest results.To learn more about the Sebastian City Council candidates and find out what you need to know before going to the polls by visiting VeroNews.com’s Vote 2009 section.