By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Levy County Commission District 3 candidate Desiree Jerrels Mills was asked Friday night what she thinks about the county budget and raising taxes. It was the first question she fielded at the Levy County Republican Executive Committee candidates’ forum in Cedar Key.
“As a landowner myself, my husband and I own acreage because we’re agriculturalists,” she responded. “I don’t like the word taxes and I certainly don’t like taxes being raised. We’re very conservative. However, we need to have a budget and we need to stick to our budget. We have a budget for a reason. We have services that need to be provided and things that our citizens need. The budget needs to fit our area.”
The next question was part comment and part question. The questioner, Parks Wilson, noted that residential growth has greatly outpaced commercial growth. More services will have to be provided for new homeowners moving into the county. The homeowners will receive far more services such as ambulance and police protection than they pay in taxes. Wilson said it’s nothing new. Commercial pays three times more taxes, but residential gets three times the services. He’s seen it happen in other parts of the state. The county may find a big gap in revenues at some point. He wanted to know what Mills thought about that issue.
Mills said the answer goes back to balancing residential versus commercial growth. She said the county doesn’t need an imbalance between the two.
“Levy County does need growth somewhat. We need to manage the growth. We don’t need everything to run to houses and developments in the county. We have our agricultural land. We have our municipalities. We need to stick to developing land in our municipalities. Agriculture should be agriculture,” she said. “We’re for agriculturalists and we pay taxes and we don’t get as much back as a residential person.”
Mills said that particular issue is something that needs to be taken into account when the county commission is working on its comprehensive plan.
“As a commissioner, if I am elected, that’s something I’ll pay attention to,” she said.
Wilson asked Mills what she thought of the proposed farmland preservation concept the county commission and their staff are working on at this point in time.
“I think there’s a lot of issues that need to be discussed on farmland preservation. I see farmland preservation from my side, from my perspective,” she said. “Any time you say preservation, that stands for taking away rights and giving a somewhat devaluation of our property. I am not for that at all. I don’t want to take away any rights of Levy County citizens. Your rights are yours and my rights are my rights and I don’t want to devalue property.”
At the same time, Mills said she is aware that the county began discussing the farmland preservation concept as a way to prevent the toll road from coming through the county.
“I don’t like the toll road. I don’t drive on the interstate, so I don’t need a toll road. However, there’s balance and there’s a lot of details that have to be checked out, a lot of “I’s” to be dotted and a lot of “T’s” to be crossed to make sure that those things work,” she said.
Stoney Smith asked Mills what makes her the best candidate. Smith noted that her opponent, Cliff Harrell, didn’t attend the Cedar Key candidates’ forum.
“I am the best candidate for this job because I love Levy County just like the rest of you sitting out here. I have a passion for the direction it is going. Why, because I am a lifelong Levy County resident and I am planning for my children to be lifelong Levy County residents, so I have a vested interest in what happens in our county. I put my personal phone number on my campaign information, so you can contact me and we can have a discussion about things that may be important to you. Things may come up that maybe I don’t know about. Other than being active in my community, that’s what makes me a better candidate.”
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Enterprise Reporting by Terry Witt July 23, 2022; Posted July 24, 2022
