By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
When State Rep. Chuck Clemons, R-District 22, and State Sen. Keith Perry, R-District 9, meet for the annual Legislative Delegation Hearing in Bronson on Jan. 20, the Levy County Commission has plenty of priorities for the two lawmakers to consider.
Residents may have a few things they want to talk about as well along with the Levy County School Board, Levy County’s eight cities, and the county constitutional officers to boot.
Perry and Clemons will meet with their constituents at 11 a.m. in the Levy County Government Center auditorium on School Street directly behind the Levy County Courthouse.
Among the county commission priorities:
- State funding for a new Emergency Operations Center and funding to remodel the old EOC for use by the Levy County Sheriff’s Office 911 dispatch center.
- Funding for broadband expansion efforts. Central Florida Electric Cooperative is planning to run fiber optic internet cables on its power poles throughout the county as well as the power poles of Duke Energy.
- Grant funding to support construction of the Waccasassa Water and Wastewater Cooperative from Bronson to Cedar Key.
- Preventing land in Florida from being sold to countries like China that are hostile to U.S. interests. The so-called monkey lab property in Gulf Hammock was purchased by a company from California that is based in China. The monkey lab property is less than 20 miles from the Yankeetown Coast Guard station, a military installation.
Levy County is considered a fiscally constrained county, which means it has a weak tax base and needs essential state funding to support programs for public services.
The following funding priorities fall under the fiscally constrained category:
- The following funding priorities fall under the
- The county’s Transportation Disadvantaged Program
- Small County Road Resurfacing Program (SCRAP)
- Solid Waste Management Grant Program (landfill)
- Small County Courthouse Renovation Grants
- Payment of Lieu of Taxes (PILT). The county receives money from the state for conservation lands in Levy County that are no longer taxable as private property.
- Small County Wastewater Treatment Grants
- Levy County Health Department/Rural Hospital Funding
- Infrastructure and Community Development Funding
- Economic Development Assistance
- Springs Restoration/Water Quality Projects
- Affordable Housing/SHIP program
- State Aid to Libraries Funding
- Funding for Regional Planning Council.
- Inmate Detention Costs, Adults, and Juveniles. One of the big costs hitting the Levy County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the jail for the county commission, is rapidly rising inmate medical costs.
- Safe Schools Funding for school resource officers and to fortify schools from potential attacks.
——————–
Enterprise reporting by Terry Witt January 13, 2023; Posted January 13, 2023
