Stop Perdido City will be Hosting a Community Forum at Jim Bailey Middle School on October 19th at 6:00 PM

Folks are organizing against the idea of incorporation in Perdido.....

A growing and building chorus of voices are rising up in opposition to the nascent effort at incorporating a large swath of the SW portion of Escambia County into a new city called "Perdido."

The group, "We are Perdido" has held multiple public meetings in Perdido, all of which I have attended.

The issue some residents have expressed to me is that their specific questions are not being answered; they feel as if the We are Perdido folks are not being on the level.  Thus, they have organized an opposition movement.  STOP PERDIDO CITY.

For my part, I am agnostic on the issue of whether or not this area of the county should incorporate.  I do not own a business in this area, nor do I own property or my primary residence in this area.  But this area is in my district so I am paying close attention and being attentive to what both sides are saying.  One thing I will make abundantly clear though is this.  Even if the incorporation is successful--the county will still collect it's 6.6165 mills on property in the new city.  Some are of the naive belief that if incorporated--"Perdido"  will just slice off this revenue from the county and keep it.  This is not the case.  The county will still get its millage, as will the school board and the sheriff's MSTU will also continue to be assessed as well as the children's trust and the library MSTU.  So the only change to folks' bills in this area, if incorporation succeeds, will be a probable additional millage levy by the new city to help fund their operations.  In addition to this, there will be new utilities taxes assessed on all utility bills in the new "city" that will likely be 10% as they are currently in other area municipalities.  In addition to this, businesses in the newly incorporated area will be subject to new business fees.

The new city will need to raise the equivalent of 3 mills worth of their current taxable value of $3.6 Billion (or roughly $10.5 Million) before they can tap into state shared revenue from the 1/2 penny sales tax for operations and the 1 penny sales tax for infrastructure.  (They will not collect any shared revenue until they raise this amount according to statutes---and the three means at their disposal to raise this $10.5 million are property taxes, business fees/taxes, and utilities taxes).

Also--many are concerned because according to We are Perdido's feasibility study--the new city does not meet the statutorily mandated population density to qualify to become a new city.

I was told by state Representative Alex Andrade he would support the new city's incorporation if it met the statory requirements.  I do not know if Representative Andrade will still run this bill in Tallahassee--even though the study area does not meet the density requirement; I do not know if he will seek a waiver from this statutory requirment and run it anyway.  That is yet to be seen, however I am aware of draft legislation already being compiled.  So that is an issue to watch as well.

So folks that are supportive need to know all of this, as well as folks that are opposed to incorporation.  

The other issue I would urge citizens who will be voting on this to think about is this:  What specific, real problem is incorporation of Perdido looking to solve? They are not taking the roads, so It can't be traffic.  They are not bringing schools, so it can't be education. They will not have their own fire service or EMS department--so it can't be public safety.  They will not have their own police force, so it can't be crime.  They will not own the county beach accesses, parks, or other facilities--so it can't be quality of life...So what specific problem are they looking to solve?

I've heard they want "control."  That's pretty nebulous and opaque.  What does that mean and is it worth the additional layered taxes/bureaucracy incorporation will bring?

Those are the questions that I would encourage citizens to ask.  Meanwhile, the flyer for STOPPERDIDO City is below.