OPINION: PCB Declares A State of Emergency To Side With Developers Over Locals (corrected)

PANAMA CITY BEACH, FL – If a county or city wants to raise impact fees more than twenty-five percent in one year, they must claim there are Extraordinary Circumstances (EC) / State of Emergency (SoE). Meaning without the massive tax increase, your house will burn down and people will be shooting up the place, oops.

But what is wrong with that? Well, the devil is in the details.

Residential fees are to increase by as much as 45% and non-residential fees slashed by as much as 97%. 

You read that correctly, they declared a de facto SoE to raise impact fees for new residents. While cutting them 97% for commercial developers.

Stop me if you have heard this one. The two locals-first members are out voted by the good old boys.

Well, to declare there are ECs requires a two-thirds vote. Meaning if those two members had voted no, the massive tax cut for developers would not have passed.

Care to guess what everyone would be screaming had this happened on Mayor Sheldon’s watch? Hint: bought and paid for by you know who.

Look, locals are not the reason we have a police and fire department twice the size required to service the local population.

That is not to say we don’t need them when tourists come to town. But the costs should not be shifted from the commercial developers and placed on the backs of locals.

But In God We Trust Everyone Else Bring Data.

There is a 15.6% increase in this year’s budget driven primarily by capital projects. The kind impact fees are meant to fund in whole or in part.

In any given year, impact fees do not cover the total cost of the projects made necessary by new development. And the lost revenue must be made up somewhere.

Meaning, every dime cut for commercial developers will have to come from the general fund and backfilled by your special assessment taxes.

Check your special assessment this year. Mine went up over 10%, which is 1.5% higher than the average when the “good old boys” were in control.

Ok, Rextradamus, what is your plan? For starters, don’t slash taxes for those that drive the cost and raise them on locals just trying to survive.

Or the council can undo the damage they have already done, and it won’t even cost the city a dime.

Thanks to Senator Trumbull you have a $2,266,000 windfall. You only need two-thirds of that to give every Local a $400 homestead exemption. That gives you $753,000 above your current budget to spend wisely of course.

Attention, Bay County residents! If they get property tax reform wrong, you will be stuck in Special Assessment hell as well. With no Save our Homes cap on how much they can go up each year.

I will track what Tallahassee does at Bay Watch FL on Rumble and Facebook. If you care, stay informed.

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