ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Orange County is considering a new type of sales tax to help fund all kinds of projects, but it would need voter approval. This is different from the tax voters rejected in 2022, which would have covered transportation improvements.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
This new infrastructure surtax would generate funding for things related to transportation, affordable housing, land conservation, water quality and parks.
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Up to 15% of the funds collected can be used for capital projects used for economic development, like the Sunshine Corridor.\u00a0
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Up to 30% of the infrastructure tax could also be divided up to the cities within Orange County.
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Orange County BCC still needs to define where exactly the money would be spent and vote by the end of April if it will be on the November ballot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This new infrastructure surtax would generate funding for things related to transportation, affordable housing, land conservation, water quality and parks. Right not, the proposal is based on a one penny sales tax, which adds one cent per dollar spent, that would be in place for the next 20 years, bringing in an estimated $757 million.<\/p>\n
If the Orange County Board of Commissioners signs off, the Orange County voters will have the final say.<\/p>\n
\u201cI probably won\u2019t vote for it just because I think we have enough in terms of taxes,\u201d said Bill Rubino, who lives in Orange County. He said it doesn\u2019t matter what the money gets spent on, it\u2019s not worth it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsn\u2019t that what our taxes should do already? I don\u2019t see another tax adding value to that,\u201d Rubino said.<\/p>\n
Other taxpayers like Rosalie White said she doesn\u2019t mind paying more to get more in return. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to see any money that I am putting towards this increased sales tax towards pedestrian safety,\u201d said White, who lives in Orange County.<\/p>\n
Improvements for pedestrians, transportation, affordable housing, parks and trails, land conservation and water quality could all have a piece of the pie.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a way that we can creatively find infrastructure that voters would like to support so we could put it towards generating funds,\u201d said Commissioner Kelly Semrad, from District 5 in Orange County.<\/p>\n
Up to 15% of the funds collected can be used for capital projects used for economic development, like the Sunshine Corridor. <\/p>\n
\u201cIncreasing those services is the only way we are going to get ourselves out of our traffic congestion issues here in Central Florida is to provide more options and this would allow us to give some more options,\u201d said Eric Grimmer, the chair of the Transportation and Mobility Advisory Commission.<\/p>\n
Grimmer calls the sunshine corridor a game changer, to connect Sunrail service to the airport and attractions area. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is an investment, but I believe the return on investment we will have here as residents will far exceed what we are putting in,\u201d Grimmer said.<\/p>\n
Up to 30% of the infrastructure tax could also be divided up to the cities within Orange County. The city of Orlando has plans to put some of their money towards the Sunshine Corridor too, which is a priority for some voters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat they want to make the Sunrail go towards the theme parks from the airport, I think that is great for the local economy and makes life easier for everybody,\u201d White said.<\/p>\n
Right now, Orange County staff has left this as open as possible for the Board of County Commissioners to decide exactly how the money would be allocated to all the different areas. The commissioners still have flexibility if they want to do a half penny instead of a full penny tax.<\/p>\n
On March 2, the Orange County Board of County Commissioner has a work session to learn more. Commissioners need to decide by the end of April if it will be on the ballot or not.<\/p>\n
If they approve it, then the months leading up to the election all the finer details will be worked out about where this money will go, so voters can know what they want to decide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Orange County is considering a new type of sales tax to help fund all kinds of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3140,274,2287,115,1335,139,141,140,99,9429,278],"class_list":["post-166269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics","tag-sarah-winkelmann","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}