The wording that will appear on Santa Rosa County voter ballots in November when voters are asked to consider renewing a half-cent local option sales tax is now official.
Commissioners voted at their April 23 regular meeting to offer voters a host of priorities to fund with the estimated $16 million that a sales tax can bring in each year for five years beginning on Jan. 1, 2027.
If the renewal of the existing tax is approved, the money will go toward relieving traffic congestion by building and improving roads, protecting drinking water sources and water quality in county waterways, and preserving natural areas, farmland and wildlife habitat from overdevelopment. It will also be used to enhance public safety by providing up-to-date equipment for fire and Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office services and improve parks and recreational facilities.
The only significant change in the wording of a ballot measure that was originally passed by approximately two-thirds of Santa Rosa County voters on Aug. 30, 2016, and extended through Dec. 31 of this year, is the specific language targeting farmland for protection.
Santa Rosa County Commissioners voted March 26 to support Commissioner Rhett Rowell’s efforts to protect farmland by establishing an Agricultural Legacy Land Program. Sales tax revenues will create a recurring source of funding to incentivize owners of agricultural land to preserve their property as farmland by establishing a permanent conservation easement.
Funds would also be available to make purchases such as the $550,000 Santa Rosa County used to team with the Tourist Development Council and a group of citizens to buy 29 acres of property overlooking one of the few healthy salt marsh habitats remaining in Northwest Florida.
By leaving the wording similar to as what appeared in 2016 and 2021, the county will also be establishing a funding source for public safety, road construction and improvement of county parks. Those items were described by Deputy County Commissioner Jared Lowe as the “bread and butter” expenses on which the bulk of the sales tax revenues will be spent.
“From the research we’ve done, I’m confident the language is consistent with the needs of our county and consistent with our input from the voters who will be making this determination,” said County Commissioner Kerry Smith.
A coordinated lobbying effort to change the wording so that renewed funding would go exclusively toward roads never really got legs, at least in the County Commission chambers.
That effort’s lead advocate, resident Jerry Couey, did not speak at the April 23 meeting before the sales tax language recommended by staff passed along with the rest of the board’s consent agenda. He had stood to reiterate his opposition to the more diverse spending set up at the April 21 Committee of the Whole meeting.
Only one person spoke at the regular commission meeting regarding the sales tax language. Chris Curb, who speaks on behalf of a group called Flood Defenders, said he supported the proposed language.
“I do agree with your language for the ballot,” he said.
He recommended the county actually break down where sales tax dollars would be spent by percentage to give residents further clarity as to where money collected is going.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Here’s what’s included in Santa Rosa’s half cent sales tax referendum
Reporting by Tom McLaughlin, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
