Efforts to create more resources to fund public safety and road improvements in Santa Rosa County hit a wall Thursday, as proposed taxing units for each failed on a 3-2 vote. However, commissioners unanimously approved a more targeted assessment for stormwater maintenance.
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Santa Rosa commissioners held public hearings for each of the three funding proposals, first giving consideration to ordinances establishing Municipal Service Taxing Units, or MSTUs, for public safety and roadway improvements.
With voters’ reluctance to support sales taxes to generate revenue, Commissioner Colten Wright spoke in favor of MSTUs as additional tool for funding the county’s needs.
“I think it’s important, much like the sales tax and other options, that we have as many options available at our disposal and disposal of the next board and the next board after that,” Wright said.
But it’s what might happen down the road that led to Commissioner Rhett Rowell’s apprehension about the MSTUs.
“I’m not super comfortable, currently, with this,” said Rowell, in reference to creating new taxing units. “While I trust every member on this board and our current staff, as a whole, my concern, what I’m still not comfortable with are future boards....We’re giving them, not a blank checkbook, I know. But I’m just a little apprehensive about it.”
Rowell also expressed concern about being prohibited from telling the public what the rate is going to be until after adopting ordinances to establish the MSTUs.
While there were no immediate plans for an additional assessment for public safety, commissioners planned to consider the MSTU rate for road improvements at their next meeting. But, Rowell was apprehensive about language that would allow future boards to raise the MSTU rates, collectively, up to a max of 10 mils, on top of the base county rate of 5.955, which could also go up to 10 mils.
“So, it could be 20,” said Milton resident Jerry Couey, trying to get clarification. “On paper, you’re saying you can do up to 10, and that’s where the uneasiness is coming from folks, because you’re leaving it wide open,” he stated.
Other speakers were concerned about some homeowners’ ability to pay increasing tax bills.
Ultimately, Rowell and fellow board members Ray Eddington Bobby Burkett voted against establishing the MSTU for public safety.
Burkett made it clear he is against raising property taxes. “I am for sales tax,” he said, noting that tourists, not just property owners, would pick up some of the tab. “I feel like sales tax is the fair way to do it.”
However, he acknowledged that the sales tax route has been challenging. A half-cent sales tax for infrastructure that was finally approved in 2016, and extended in 2020, is set to expire in December of 2026. In the November 2024 election, voters rejected replacing it with a new penny sales tax that was tied to impact fees. Additionally, the issue can’t go for a vote again until 2028.
When the MSTU for road improvements came up, it also seemed destined to fail, threatening elimination of a funding source for over $475 million in county road projects that are currently in the works.
“We have several roads that we have spent millions of dollars to design and there is no money to do those,” said County Administrator Brad Baker, offering a dose of reality. “And, I want to make it very clear that we should not live in a fantasy world.”
Without that additional money, Baker said many of these projects were going nowhere.
“I think it’s only fair to tell the citizens, if we don’t have the funding sources, we’re not widening Chumuckla Highway ($45 million),” he said. “We’re not widening Berryhill Road ($130 million over three phases). We’re not doing the intersection improvements that we have spent almost $2 million to be in design for right now for Five-Points.”
Just ahead of the vote on the MSTU for roads, which also failed 3-2, Commissioner Kerry Smith offered his thoughts on what’s at stake in the current anti-growth climate.
“If we don’t adopt an MSTU for roads and don’t vote for a sales tax, then we’re saying, ‘We’re ‘closed for business,’” he cautioned.
The path was easier a proposal to establish a Municipal Services Benefit Unit, or MSBU, for stormwater maintenance, which passed by a unanimous vote of the board.
For MSBUs, which are not ad valorem based, the properties that directly benefit from the improvement will equally share the associated costs.
Tamara Fountain, who lives along the water in a low-lying area of Navarre, said her neighborhood was one of the initial subdivisions to be impacted by the stormwater assessment.
“I’m actually okay with an MSBU,” said Fountain. “Stormwater ponds that are serviced properly prevent flooding and that is a really important part of keeping community safe and dry.”
The stormwater maintenance will be contracted out, with the bids currently being accepted. Rates will be determined at the board’s next Regular meeting on June 23 and will be included on TRIM notices in August. The maintenance work is set to commence in October.
