CHARTER REVIEW RECOMMENDATIONS
Bill Bigelow, representing and speaking for several county taxpayers made the following recommendations to the Charter Review Board (1) A vote, by the people affected, when the County is thinking of a new MSBU, (2) More influence by we the people and (3) Electing the County Administrator.
(1) We are proposing Section 2.2 (H) of the Charter be amended to require the Board of County Commissioners (‘BOCC”) before it establishes any new M.S.B.U. or M.S.T.U Equivalent Residential Units (“ERU’s) to obtain approval via election ballots or supervised executed surveys of a majority of all citizens residing in the area to be serviced by the proposed new ERU. Additionally, we ask the above Charter amendment would also be amended to: (a) require, in the 2018 county election, that the ballot will include a provision whereby all Charlotte voters would vote to ratify or not ratify the continued existence of all existing M.S.B.U’s and M.S.T.U.’s. If the current Special Taxation system is struck down by a majority of the voters, the BOCC would then be required to convert the county to a 100% ad valorem tax system, which system would become effective on January 1, 2020 and (b) provide for an exemption from Special Taxation (i.e. M.S.B.U.’s and MSTU’s taxation) for all churches in the county for such levies represent double taxation and very few other counties tax their churches in the manner Charlotte County does.
How do we justify such changes? Please refer to the detailed position paper I e-mailed each of you on December 4, which covers the history of Special Taxation in this county and the improprieties connected to that taxation system. Special Taxation has now morphed far away from its original purpose of road maintenance only to where it is now a system now covering a multitude of services which is too expensive to operate; creates great animosity between the government and the many citizens subject to the taxes being levied by now over 60 ERU’s; and allows our county government to significantly exceed the 10% mill limit on ad valorem property taxes assessed in the state of Florida. I have pointed out to you the 40-year old government oversight company, Florida Taxwatch (funded by citizen contributions), places Charlotte taxpayers in the top 10 highest taxed counties of the 67 Florida Counties and we are also rated the number one Florida county in per capita Special Taxation levies, the second Florida county having its citizens taxed annually at 50% of the Charlotte taxation amount.
I then provided each of you a spreadsheet analysis of Charlotte County family income levels for 2015, which shows 45% of all Charlotte families have annual incomes of less than $40,000 and 65% of families have annual income of less than $50,000. A large percentage of these families are living on fixed incomes and are, as cited in many press reports, currently struggling to make ends meet. Add to our high tax burden the fact that the water rates of Charlotte County Utilities, the county-owned water company, also rank among the group of water companies having the highest rates in Florida plus our Commissioners last year approved additional annual water rate increases for the next 3 years.
Furthermore, the county’s tax base calculated on a real inflation-adjusted basis has been not increasing for several years. The county tax base will be negatively effected over the next 5-10 years as additional acreage of perceived “preservation”/Scrub Jay habitat committed county/NGO owned land is purchased by tax exempt buyers and therefore taken off of the tax rolls thereby driving the percentage of county land exempt from property taxes moving upward from the current 38% to over 50%. When that happens, the remaining taxpayers will be expected to cover the negative tax collection gap, thereby created.
Add to this high tax/water rate expense burden the following huge capital expenditure probabilities, which are now on county government’s plate: (1) the county’s new 20-year capital improvements budget totals about $1 BILLION of which County Administration admits $642bMILLION has no defined sources of funding; (2) CCU has now estimated the BOCC sponsored sewer expansion construction project plan will cost $200 MILLION plus CCU has just advised the BOCC that a large portion of its sewer pipes throughout the county need replacement at an estimated cost of $160 MILLION. Such estimates will undoubtedly be very low given CCU’s original construction cost estimate for Spring Lake Sewers was $10.6 million and the latest cost estimate is $27 million, but that figure does not include a big section of the project the low bid of which was thrown out totaling $9.6 million and will be rebid, plus additional expenditures for insurance, loan interest, MSBU fees and administrative fees. The probable cost of Spring Lake sewers will exceed $40 million, up 400% from the original estimate; and (3) the BOCC has committed to take on the $36 MILLION cost of the PG Justice Center addition and have already committed to fund about $9 million of up front costs even though they have no idea what will be the funding source(s) of the expansion. There are other “pet” projects of County Administration in the offing which could approach $20 MILLION. None of the above unfunded projects totaling about $1.1 BILLIOIN are connected with the projects being funded by the 1% sales tax revenues.
You readily can see, from the county’s enormous need for funding dollars over the next 5-10 years, our middle class dominated taxpayer base is being set up to incur massive tax increases. Out of self-preservation, this growing problem has to be addressed by the citizens of this county for BOCC actions show they appear to be oblivious of the oncoming financial freight train coming at us now at full speed.
Therefore, the power of the people in this county must be enhanced to create means of greater, meaningful influential input in solving this major problem. The peoples’ Charter must be changed to address the county’s dysfunctional Special Taxation system, as we are proposing.
(2) To provide county citizens/businesses/organizations more influence in the establishment/changing of county codes and ordinances, we are proposing for Charter Review Committee approval, an amendment to Section 2.2 (G), changing the required 10% currently required in subsection (1) to 5%.
Many taxpayers in this county believe the current codes and ordinances, as changed in 2014 by the BOCC, are still predominantly anti-business and anti private property rights. We further believe the combination of high taxation in this county plus the highly restrictive codes and ordinances collectively contribute to the incidence of anemic economic growth this county has experienced for several years. The proposed change for a reduction in the number of signed voter petitions required by anyone seeking new or amendments to codes and ordinances, if approved, could result in our county tax base increasing in the future by enhanced economic activity, rather than staying in its current dormant state.
Finally, we are proposing a third Charter amendment, as follows:
(3) We request Section 2.2 be changed to eliminate the language which cites the County Administrator is an “appointed” office and replace that language with the statement which will make the County Administrator position an elected office, which will be filled every four years by the voters of Charlotte County (subject to the exception cited below in this paragraph). If the voters approve this amendment in November 2016, then the first election to fill the job as County Administrator will be held in a special election in November 2017 with the new Administrator required to stand for reelection in 2020.
The reasons for Committee approval of this very important Charter change are many and were outlined in my e-mails to each voting and alternate members of this committee on January 4 and January 12, 2016. Time does not allow me to go through the entire factual reasoning presented to support the approval of this Charter change. However, one of the primary reasons is that the appointed County Administrator is totally inaccessible to citizens who have legitimate gripes concerning County Administrative activities and this situation is unacceptable for we believe at least 75 percent of what ultimately ends up as law in this county is generated by the County Administration, not the BOCC. Therefore, the citizens have the right to demand the Administrator stand for election and in the process answer citizen questions, just like the five Commissioners and the Sheriff have to when they stand for election.
For the record, I am attaching to these prepared remarks, as Exhibit I, the reasoning for an elected County Administrator as I submitted to you in the above two cited e-mails. Additionally, I have attached Exhibit II. which outlines the makeup of the process we are proposing to be used by the county to assure qualified candidates for the job of County Administrator will fill each election ballot.
In summary, the Home Rule Charter of Charlotte County is a “citizens” document and hence it must be flexible enough for citizens to better participate in county government decision making in the key areas of taxation, codes and ordinances, and whom the citizens, not the BOCC, want occupying the chair of the County Administrator. We have taken substantial time to factually present the many valid reasons why each of these three Charter changes should be approved by the Charter Review Committee.
The citizens of Charlotte county need more influence on determining the direction of important county actions, which will impact positively or negatively our lives. Our ability to vote every four years for County Commissioners seats has proven over the years to be inadequate, so changes in the Charter to improve our influence in crafting the future of this county is mandatory and justified.
Approval of these three changes in the Charter will in combination solve the major financial problems Charlotte County will soon experience because conversion to an ad valorem tax system will cause necessary reductions in the size of County Government, which will then provide the funding necessary to properly handle the many infrastructure projects that are on our plate, and in the end will allow tax reductions once these major projects have been completed. This is a win, win for everyone in the county so we look forward to your approval of the changes we have submitted.
