Volusia County resists urge to raise taxes for off-beach parking

BEACON PHOTO/SARAHROSE MINISTERI

By Al Everson
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Jul 30, 2010 - 9:57:57am

With a little more than two months before the start of the county’s new fiscal year, the Volusia County Council has approved a tentative 2010-11 budget and the property-tax rates necessary to fund it.

The rates are not yet final. The County Council may lower the rates before finalizing them in September, but may not raise them higher than the tentative rates that have been announced.

Like many households and businesses, county government is planning to spend less, and is counting on leaner levies.

“All tax rates drop except voter-approved rates for Volusia Forever and ECHO,” County Manager James Dinneen said, as he presented a fiscal summary July 22.

The Volusia Forever and ECHO programs remain constant at one-fifth of a mill, or 20 cents per $1,000 of taxable value. The Volusia Forever program is the county’s effort to buy and preserve environmentally sensitive and water-recharge lands to safeguard them from development.

Volusia ECHO denotes the county’s program of developing or buying environmental, cultural, historic or outdoor-recreational assets. The first letters of the italicized words form the acronym ECHO, which is the common term for the program. Both Volusia Forever and ECHO were approved by county voters in 2000. Both taxing programs have 20-year life spans.

Dinneen’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year totals about $594.8 million, down from the $613 million total approved for the current fiscal year.

The general fund drops from about $238 million to almost $223 million. The general fund is the portion of the budget most directly derived from property taxes, and that revenue stream will provide about $133 million, which is $23 million less than the $156 million property owners paid to help fund the 2009-10 budget. Other sources of general-fund revenue include state-shared revenues and fines.

Other parts of the budget deal with spending and special revenues, including grants, fees for services, and extra assessments.

Dinneen reminded the County Council he has eliminated 467 positions on the county payroll over the past three years, mostly by attrition.

“Most of the cuts we have are not cuts in services,” he said.

The tentative tax rates submitted by Dinneen were the result of many months of budget workshops with the council, whose members had called for cuts in spending and taxation.

At one point in the discussion at the July 22 meeting, two council members, Carl Persis and Josh Wagner, floated the idea of raising the rates for the Port Authority and/or the general fund, to generate more revenue for buying property for off-beach parking.

A possible shortage of off-beach parking was mentioned in the very emotional debate about driving on the beach and the tragic death of a Deltona child hit by a truck at New Smyrna Beach.

“If we set it now, it will give us a couple of months to think about it,” Wagner said, as he suggested hiking tax rates by a few cents.

Vice Chair Joie Alexander noted the Port Authority assessment wouldn’t affect West Volusia property owners.

“It’s just making the people east of [Interstate] 95 pay,” she said.

The Ponce DeLeon Port Authority was formed many years ago to develop a deep-water port, but that project never was realized. The Port Authority, comprising the County Council members, now allocates funds for improvements in the Halifax and Indian rivers, as well as the Atlantic Ocean. One of the projects awaiting construction near the mouth of the inlet is the extension of the South Jetty.

“I will not be supporting a motion to increase any tax,” Council Member Andy Kelly said.

“You can always come down,” Persis argued.

The notion of adding more revenue to spend upset Council Member Jack Hayman.

“Now, all of a sudden, all frugality has gone out the door,” said Hayman, recalling the months of work by the council and the manager. “That’s not what the drill has been about. ... I’m aghast — what have I been doing here all year?”

The council will set the final tax rates following two public hearings in September.

— al@beacononlinenews.com

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