By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

                Levy County Commission Chairman John Meeks said Tuesday a group of small-county elected officials like himself approached state lawmakers in a recent visit to Tallahassee and requested the flexibility to ask their voters to approve an additional local sales tax of up to 1 percent to pay for infrastructure projects.

            Meeks said some state senators weren’t receptive to the idea and viewed the proposal as just an additional tax on residents, but Meeks said the infrastructure sales tax would have to be approved by 60 percent of the voters in the county and he thinks it would be better than continuing to heap property owners with more taxes. He said 38 percent of Levy County residents pay property taxes.

            The county commission chairman made his pitch for an infrastructure sales tax at Tuesday’s county commission meeting as part of his legislative update in advance of the upcoming Florida Legislature session that starts in the early winter months next year. Legislative committees meet in advance of the session to listen to local lawmakers.

            Meeks is the past president of the Small County Coalition and often serves as the Levy County Commission’s representative in Tallahassee when it comes to lobbying state lawmakers.

            “What we asked for was some flexibility to be able to let the voters, by referendum, vote on whether they would like to see this sales tax increase to pay for these programs,” Meeks said.

            Levy County taxpayers already pay ample taxes.

            The state levies a 6-cent sales tax in Levy County and the Levy County Commission imposes an additional 1 cent surtax, making the total sales tax collected 7 cents. The county also levies 7 cents in gas taxes, a 9-mill property tax as well as an Emergency Medical Services special assessment of $154, a landfill special assessment of $116, and a fire services special assessment of $129. The assessments and 9-mill property tax are assessed against private property.

            Meeks argued that costs are going up for small counties as the state forces them to pay for required programs without providing state revenues. He said the state passed a stormwater and wastewater bill last year that forces counties to monitor those issues but he said eventually he expects the state to crack the whip over counties to force them to pay for stormwater and wastewater improvement programs without providing state funding.

            He said the county is facing the prospect of paying for a $5 million to $10 million state-required radio system upgrade for 911 communications. The preliminary plan is to use federal CARES Act funding, which is being stored in county reserves, to pay for the system but Meeks said an infrastructure tax would relieve the county of dipping into reserves to pay for the new communications system.

            Meeks said county lawmakers also made state senators aware of the need for a state-funded broadband internet system in small counties like Levy. He asked for a volunteer on his board of commissioners that would work with state lawmakers on bringing broadband internet to Levy County. Commissioner Matt Brooks turned the tables on Meeks, making a motion instead for Meeks to work on that issue. The motion passed 3-1 with Meeks in opposition.

            Meeks said the legislature last year provided $1.5 million for broadband expansion to underserved counties for the entire state. He said the $1.5 million won’t even cover mapping activities for the internet, much less the full program. He said the county needs to lobby for more funding.

            He said small counties also lobbied for more state help with economic development. He said the state is moving away from the concept of Qualified Targeted Industries, which didn’t help small counties. He said in Levy County, it does make sense to talk about aerospace and aeronautics because Williston has a big airport and a booming industrial park at the airport.

            “But we need to put our focus on other areas like manufacturing, assembly, and even one area we haven’t really addressed – a distribution center,” Meeks said. “A lot of these Targets and Walmarts and Amazons fill these tremendous warehouses and they build where it’s cheap to build. The way the old Qualified Targeted Industries legislation worked we couldn’t qualify for that. We’ve asked for those changes to be made in the language to accept some other things that are geared to rural communities. We don’t have a lot of engineers sitting around wanting to do aerospace stuff in Levy County, but we have a lot of people who are willing to work, who are good workers and good employees.”

            On a final subject, Meeks said county elected officials asked the Senate to restore the road resurfacing programs money known as SCOP and SCRAP. Meeks said the legislature raided the programs last year and took away $40 million from Levy County that had been part of the SCOP and SCRP programs. He said small-county officials want all of the money they lost last year given back to their programs plus additional funding.

            “The thought around Tallahassee is there’s a lot of money floating around between the federal money, the relocation of businesses (to Florida), the relocation of people, the fact that we’re an open state and people are coming here for vacation. People are coming here in droves and spending money and a lot of the state money comes from sales taxes. The coffers are full. Now is the time to strike for Levy County,” Meeks said.

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Connect with your Commissioner

District1@levycounty.org – John Meeks, Chair

District2@levycounty.org – Rock Meeks, Vice Chair

District4@levycounty.org – Lilly Rooks

District5@levycounty.org – Matt Brooks

https://www.levycounty.org/department/commissioners/index.php

Board of County Commission Regular Meeting October 19, 2021; Posted October 19, 2021