FELLSMERE — The Board of County Commissioners has an ally throwing its support behind the extension of the 1-cent discretionary sales tax. The Fellsmere City Council unanimously approved a resolution at its Thursday meeting.
County Attorney Dylan Reingold attended the meeting, asking the Council for its support.
City Manager Jason Nunemaker explained to the Council that the City’s signature projects are all partially funded through the City’s portion of the 1-cent sales tax. Park improvements, the Rails to Trails project, and other such infrastructure projects throughout the city are funded with grants that are matched by funds from the sales tax.
The County has $600 million worth of projects planned in its long range transportation plan, which has an estimated construction cost of $700 million – but that doesn’t include the cost of right of way acquisition, Nunemaker said, bringing the true cost closer to $1.4 billion countywide.
If the sales tax extension isn’t approved by voters in November 2016, “it’s going to be fairly devastating,” Nunemaker said.
The discretionary sales tax was first approved by voters in the late 1980s and was renewed by the voters in 2002. It’s currently set to expire at the end of 2019.
County Commissioners recently decided to take the question of extending the sales tax to the voters at the November 2016 general election, noting that a presidential election would bring out more voters than any other election would.
Nunemaker told the Council that the beauty of the 1-cent sales tax is that everyone pays it, including visitors. Tourism, he said, helps to subsidize the infrastructure improvements the County, and municipalities, need.
Without the sales tax, the City Council would have to consider either cutting back on projects traditionally funded through the tax or increasing the city’s taxes and fees.
“It wouldn’t be palatable for constituents,” Nunemaker said.
In other Council business, the Council set its tentative millage rate and budget and scheduled its two required public hearings for 6 p.m. on Sept. 3 and 15. The proposed millage rate is 5.2756 – or $5.27 per $1,000 of taxable assessed value.
“We can always go down, but we can’t go up,” Nunemaker said.
The Council also moved forward with schedule public hearings for the City’s water, wastewater and stormwater rates. Those hearings will be held at 6 p.m. Sept. 3 and 15, as well. The water and wastewater rates are expected to increase 1.4 percent in keeping with the rate of inflation. The stormwater rate will remain $4 per month.
Public hearings will also be held at 6 p.m. Sept. 3 and 15 for the City’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which Nunemaker said will be “basically a maintenance budget” as there has been little increase in tax values within the CRA.
All public hearings will be held in the Council Chambers, located at 22 S. Orange St., and residents and property owners are encouraged to provide their input.