- December 3, 2024
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The Flagler County Commission approved in a 4-0 vote a resolution that would open the door for a new property assessment tax in unincorporated Flagler County on the barrier island, the first step in funding the county’s beach management plan.
Levying a property assessment tax on residents in unincorporated Flagler County was proposed over the summer as a way to fund the much-needed beach management plan. The resolution approved on Dec. 2 does not levy a tax assessment — known as MSBUs and MSTUs — but just signals the county’s intent to possibly do so in the future, County Administrator Heidi Petito said.
“This is just a tool. We have plenty of time to continue to talk about this,” Petito said.
The proposed funding for the 11-mile stretch of unincorporated county land would be a mix of funding resources: the county’s Tourist Development Tax, the small county half-cent sales tax, state and local appropriations and grants, funding dedicated from the county’s budget, some dedicated ad valorem taxes and the special tax for residents in the 11-mile stretch of unincorporated Flagler County shoreline.
Implementing a tax assessment, though, is a long process that began with passing the Dec. 2 resolution. Commissioner Greg Hansen was absent from the meeting.
The meeting was Commissioners Kim Carney and Pam Richardson’s first business commission meeting. Both Carney and Richardson questioned Petito on whether the county has looked at all the revenue alternatives to fund a beach management plan in the county and what the county’s communication with the cities has been regarding beach management.
“Do you believe you've done everything you can to look at other revenue sources?” Carney said.
Petito said that over the last year, at the direction of the Flagler County Commission “we’ve looked at everything,” including adding an additional toll to the Hammock Dunes bridge to levying other additional taxes that the county does not take advantage of.
Petito said that staff reviewed other counties and communities across the state to see what they do to fund programs like Flagler’s proposed beach management plan. What they found, she said, is that other communities have already levied these MSBU and MSTU taxes.
“We are really heavily reliant on ad valorem,” Petito said. “…As we looked at those other communities, we are the only ones that don't have a variety of different type of revenue sources.”
These MSBU and MSTU taxes could be levied to fund maintaining the county’s roads and first responder organizations, too, she said. The county also has the option of levying more for the fuel tax and up to 1% for a small county sales tax. Right now, she said, Flagler only levies a half-percent sales tax.
“There are options out there,” Petito said. “But I work under the direction of the board, I look at everything that the board authorizes us to do, and we'll implement whatever the board wishes to do.”
As far as communication with Flagler’s cities go, Petito said that now that all the elections are over, the county is looking to hold another joint meeting with all the municipalities present to discuss the beach management plan and further funding options.
The original proposed beach management funding plan considered implementing the tax assessments county wide in a tiered system. But, Petito said, the cities are outside of Flagler County's jurisdiction to levy these assessments, which is why the scope was narrowed down to the 11-mile stretch of county land on the barrier island.
She said the county has tried to set up a meeting with all of the cities to discuss ideas for the beach management plan, but it was delayed because of the elections.
“It wasn't for a lack of trying to talk to the cities,” Petito said. Likely, she said, the next joint meeting will be held in January.
