Commissioners dissolve Big Coppitt taxing district
Action
removes funding mechanism for sewers
BY SCOTT FUSARO
AND TIMOTHY O'HARA
Citizen Staff
MARATHON — In a move that
threatens to further sour the county's deteriorating relationship with
Tallahassee, the Monroe County Commission voted Monday to dissolve a
taxing district created to fund wastewater treatment on Big Coppitt Key
and surrounding areas.
The County Commission
created the taxing district three years ago to help pay costs incurred
by the utility for a sewer system on Big Coppitt Key. The tax would have
raised $182,457 next year.
The action, taken during
a budget hearing Monday in Marathon, is the latest maneuver in an
ongoing turf war between the County Commission and the Aqueduct
Authority over which agency controls sewer projects — and more than $100
million in construction contracts — in Monroe County. The commission
voted last week not to fund Aqueduct Authority sewer projects in the
county, and to absolve itself of responsibility for meeting a
state-mandated 2010 deadline for sewering the Keys.
County Mayor Dixie Spehar,
in a move some interpret as a diplomatic faux pas, refused to allow
state Department of Community Affairs Secretary Thaddeus Cohen to
address the commission on the issue. DCA oversees growth management in
the Florida Keys, which have been an Area of Critical State Concern for
three decades.
Deal jeopardized?
The commission's refusal
to fund Aqueduct Authority projects has raised concerns about county
compliance with an agreement hammered out last year between the county,
the DCA and the state Department of Environmental Protection.
In that deal, the county
would be allowed to issue construction permits for 255 new homes each
year in unincorporated Monroe — 97 more than its previous annual
allotment. The county also would be allowed to issue 181 permits
previously withheld by the state due to the county's failure to make
substantial progress toward meeting the goals of its land-use plan. The
state also agreed to spend $93 million over three years for the
acquisition of environmentally sensitive land in the Keys.
In exchange, the County
Commission and Keys municipalities agreed to bond $200 million to
finance sewer projects, to take measures to protect native hardwood
hammocks and pinelands, to find ways to provide affordable workforce
housing, to improve hurricane evacuation times and to launch stormwater
treatment projects.
On Thursday, the day
after the commission's funding decision, Assistant County Attorney Bob
Shillinger advised commissioners and county officials via e-mail that he
had been contacted by DCA Deputy General Counsel David Jordan. Jordan,
according to the e-mail, told Shillinger the DCA "would find it
difficult to recommend [to the governor and state Cabinet] that the
county was in 'substantial compliance'" with the agreement.
Shillinger said Jordan
cited both the county's policy on classifying sensitive land and its
decision not to fund wastewater projects.
The county is required to
submit an annual report on it progress to the governor and Cabinet in
October.
Fight for control
The rift between the
Aqueduct Authority and the county began in 2000, when state Rep. Ken
Sorensen, with County Commission support, sponsored legislation allowing
Key Largo to form its own wastewater board to oversee projects in that
Upper Keys community.
Another Sorensen bill
earlier this year would have taken wastewater authority in Marathon away
from the Aqueduct Authority, diminished its ability to let bonds and
called for a referendum on how the utility's board was selected. Gov.
Jeb Bush vetoed the legislation.
As things stand now, the
Aqueduct Authority remains the legislatively-designated wastewater
authority for most of the county, but it does not have the taxing
authority needed to guarantee funds to pay for sewer construction. The
county, which has the necessary taxing authority, refuses to fund
Aqueduct Authority projects.
The taxing district
dissolved Monday was created to help pay sewer costs on Big Coppitt Key
and was to collect tax revenue through 2008. When the district was
created, the county signed an agreement with the Aqueduct Authority
turning the money over to the utility.
The cost burden
The utility now appears
to have few options outside of passing the full cost of the project to
property owners.
Aqueduct Authority
Executive Director Jim Reynolds said the move would make progress on the
Big Coppitt Key sewer plant more difficult, but the public utility would
move forward.
"We are going to proceed
with the documents and proceed with getting proposals and then we will
be looking to the county to get funding and to the state," he said.
Mayor Spehar and
Commissioners Charles "Sonny" McCoy and Murray Nelson voted to dissolve
the district. Commissioners George Neugent and David Rice voted against
it.
"No matter who does it,
somebody is almost certainly going to sewer Big Coppitt when it's all
said and done," said Rice, arguing for leaving the fund intact. Rice is
married to the chairwoman of the FKAA board of directors.
The district has
accumulated $170,474, all from the current fiscal year, according to
county figures. The money was collected for the specific purpose of
sewer upgrades and any remaining funds after the utility is reimbursed
for costs it has incurred up until now must be refunded to property
owners, County Attorney Richard Collins said.
County
Clerk
Danny Kolhage told commissioners the procedure for refunding taxes
already collected is a "tedious" process that could drag on for years.
Blame game
Nelson said Monday he
would attempt to have legislation similar to the bill vetoed by the
governor reintroduced next session to break the standoff with the
Aqueduct Authority. Nelson accused the state of reneging on an agreement
to provide some $30 million for wastewater projects.
"The county has already
provided $20 million of our match, and the state has not provided its
match," he said, calling the state in "breach" of the agreement.
"We will not get where we
want to go" by alienating the governor and state officials, noted Rice.
He and Neugent blame local delays for preventing a Big Coppitt sewer
project from getting off the ground.
sfusaro@keysnews.com
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