INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Funding for municipal redevelopment zones appears to be safe from legislative meddling – for now. Members of the Indian River County Legislative Delegation heard from County Administrator Joe Baird Tuesday morning who asked they consider cutting the amount of funding for Fellsmere’s and Sebastian’s redevelopment areas.
Legislators, however, did not seem eager to take on the case. Rep. Ralph Poppell said after the meeting that Baird’s discussion was a matter of awareness and not a matter that required voting. “It was anticlimactic,” said Fellsmere City Manager Jason Nunemaker after the meeting, noting that the 4-member legislative delegation didn’t show an interest in Baird’s presentation.
“We feel pretty secure,” Nunemaker said of the city’s funding for its redevelopment area, explaining that it does not appear likely that members of the state’s legislature will “open a can of worms” and tweak the state statutes pertaining to the creation of redevelopment zones.
Fellsmere city leaders sent a letter to the delegation expressing its position on the matter, a decision Nunemaker said they felt was sufficient.
“We didn’t want to get into a tit for tat with the county,” he said.
Sebastian City Manager Al Minner also attended the legislative delegation meeting in Vero Beach, though he left before the CRA funding issue came up.
After the meeting, however, Minner said that he respectfully disagrees with Baird’s assessment that the CRAs burden the county’s general fund – noting that many of Baird’s arguments over road funding, police, parks and other similar services are services the city itself provides.
“It was a pretty big ask,” Minner said of Baird’s request, adding that if legislators were to take it on, it would change the rules for all redevelopment areas in the state, not just Indian River County.
At stake is approximately $58,000, which the county has said it could reserve for its general fund if the state legislature trimmed the required contribution from the county by 20 percent.
The way the state legislation works, cities can establish specific areas to redevelop using targeted tax dollars. When the area is established, the tax rolls on those affected properties are frozen. Ninety-five percent of the increased property values within the site is funneled back into the site through the county. The county gets to keep 5 percent.
Baird told the delegation it would be more fair if the split were 75-25. He argued that the amount of tax revenues the county has to give back to the cities is not fair because the county must continue to provide services for those areas – be it jails, courts, or other countywide services.
Nunemaker said after the meeting that, in the long-term, they might be arguing over nothing. He explained that the City of Fellsmere is projecting a continued decline in community redevelopment area funding due to declining property values – a “general economic malaise.”
Rep. Poppell asked Baird if the city’s growth would increase the county’s general tax base. Though Baird replied that it would increase the county’s tax base, the county would still have to pay that increase to the city.
“I don’t get any of the money,” Baird said.
Last year, the City of Fellsmere received a little more than $34,700 and Sebastian received more than $255,000. Vero Beach does not have a community redevelopment area.
A 20 percent cut of their respective CRA funds would equate to approximately $7,000 less to Fellsmere and $51,000 less to Sebastian.
