Another Volusia County tax has been eliminated.
Almost as quietly as a kitten sleeps, the County Council May 7 voted to abolish the requirement for people living in the unincorporated parts of the county to buy licenses for their pet dogs, cats or ferrets. The council thus followed a recommendation from its Animal Control Board, an advisory panel appointed by the council.
“It’s a low compliance,” Assistant County Attorney Sebrina Slack said in December, when the issue was first discussed at a meeting of the board.
How low is the compliance?
An internal search of the county’s records revealed that “there is a total of 166 licenses” in compliance, wrote Community Information Officer Clayton Jackson, in an email response to a query from The Beacon.
The county’s Animal Control has a 2023-24 budget of $3,364,484, with 19 authorized full-time positions. Animal Control fee revenues account for $9,975. Most of the funding for the agency comes from the county’s general fund and the Municipal Services District, which covers the unincorporated areas.
The scrapping of the pet tax is the third such action that the County Council has taken within the past year. The council last year, before the current budget was adopted, abolished the requirement for businesses to secure a county-issued occupational license, also known as a business-tax receipt. Cities, however, may still require businesses within their jurisdiction to obtain a city-issued license.
Not least, the council also abolished the communications tax in the unincorporated portions of the county.
Strangely, I am in unincorporated Volusia County and I just purchased a dog license last week! Has the office that handles them not been told of this change, I wonder?