Incorporation of Perdido? Part II--Questions and Answers

 

I attended the informational meeting of the “We are Perdido” effort the other night at Liberty Church in District 1.  I thought the event went well, the speakers did a good job, and the venue was comfortable.  The audio-visual system was very good.  A large crowd was on hand as well, to get the information.

Full Disclosure:  I am agnostic on this effort at incorporation; I am neutral.  This is a decision (whether to incorporate Perdido) of the citizens and residents and business owners of that study area and their decision only.  This is exactly what I told Channel 3 when they interviewed me on this very topic, and it is also what I told InWeekly reporter Tommy St. Meyer when he also recently interviewed me on this topic. Yes, it is in my district---but whether the effort to incorporate is successful or not—that won’t change.  It will still be a part of the county and in District 1. 

But I am going to study and examine every aspect of this initiative to learn all that I can about it so that I can speak to constituents with a more informed opinion when I am asked about this effort.  (I am already getting questions about this incorporation)

So, I came to the meeting.  I stayed for about 1 ½ hours and listened to the presentation.  I was particularly impressed with Lynn Tipton, the guest speaker from the Florida League of Cities.  She brought a power point presentation with lots of useful data to relay to the assembled crowed of about 250 or so.

At the end of the presentation, a brief question and answer session was held.

So, the next day I reached out to Ms. Tipton and had the opportunity to speak with her Wednesday evening about some additional questions I had.

I asked about additional revenue sources the new city, if incorporated, would be able to raise.

According to her, the city can receive a share county’s Local Option gas taxes if they take over the county’s roads within the city’s footprint.  At the meeting, one of the organizers stated in answer to a question about Perdido Key Drive that they would not be seeking to take over the roads and the responsibility for the maintenance and repair of the road.  So, this seems to foreclose Perdido’s ability to tap into those funds.  Tipton did mention that it is not uncommon for some cities in Florida to have county roads within their municipalities.

Other takeaways included the following:

--Parks, Boat Launches, and public beach accesses within this Perdido footprint would remain a part of the county—unless the new city negotiated to take them over and purchase them.

--Potential 10 Mill levy—while completely lawful to do for the new city (Pensacola levies over 4 mills on top of the county’s assessment)-- if the elected councilmen/women of Perdido voted to do this---as a practical matter according to Tipton this is highly unlikely as no Florida municipality has levied this high a number on the citizens served because there is an unacknowledged “cap” where if a certain percentage is levied all the councilpersons get voted out.  People don’t like ad valorem tax rate increases.

--How Much will 1 Mill equate to when applied to We Are Perdido’s self-identified  taxable value of $3.5 Billion?  It appears, stripping out the school board tax and only applying the county’s, the Sheriff’s, and the library districts combined rate of 7.6605 mills---that each “Mill” of value will be approximately $3.5 Million. (Or an easier calculation to make to determine the value of just one mill is to take the total taxable value and either divide by 1000 or multiply by .001.  1 mill = $3.5 Million)

--How would the new city tap into the county’s ½ cent sales tax and 8^th cent gas tax revenues?  The new city would have to qualify to tap into these funds through the Department of Revenue by raising an amount of revenue the equivalent of at least levying 3 Mills to the taxable value of the property within its footprint.   Meaning in order for the fledgling city to tap into the ½ cent DOR revenue and 8^th cent in gas tax---important revenue sources to the city because these revenue sources are bondable---the new city would need to show DOR new revenue generation  of $10.5 Million (3 Mill equivalent) via ad

valorem rate assessment, new utility bill taxes, and/or business taxation (or via some combination of these three new revenue sources) in order to qualify for this revenue.  According to Ms. Tipton, they (DOR) don’t just start sending this revenue once you incorporate—"you have to have skin in the game and the Florida DOR determines the precise amount a new city needs to raise before such a city can tap into the ½ sales tax and 8^th cent gas tax.”

--New city is not entitled to the county’s existing franchise fee revenue—however they can work to negotiate their own fees

--According to Tipton, the legislature routinely grants waivers to 165.061 Fl Stat. requirements on population density if requested to do so-- meaning this area’s estimated current density of under the 1.5 persons per square acre number (currently looks like 1.16 per acre in study area) could be waived as a requirement if the legislature requests this.

 

I really appreciated Ms. Tipton’s time and patience in helping me to better understand/unpack some of the questions I had post this first public meeting.

As I said above, I remain neutral as this is an effort that will ultimately fall on the citizens to either support or not support.   However, a number of citizens have already asked my opinion and also this question has come up multiple times:  What exact problem is this new initiative looking to solve—because it can’t be roads if they won’t take the county’s roads, it can’t be parks and boat launches if they don’t have the revenue to purchase these, it can’t be zoning and planning if they’ll be using the county’s comp plan for at least the first two years and the county’s planning and zoning (code enforcement) staff, it can’t be law enforcement if they are not going to have their own police force, it can’t be fire if they are going to use the county’s fire service---so what problem will this new government light solve?

 

Seems like a fair question.  Especially when the new taxes (ad valorem, business, and utilities) that the new city will levy (In addition to the current levy from county and school board which will not go away) will add up to millions of dollars.  I guess I’d like to know a specific answer to that question, too.