FORT PIERCE \u2013 In an effort to try and improve its chances at renewing the half-cent infrastructure surtax before it sunsets at the end of 2028, the St. Lucie County Commission majority voted to schedule it early for this November\u2019s mid-term election despite protests from some commissioners fearing it will fail due to the inclusion of Amendment 3 on the same ballot.<\/p>\n
County Administrator George Landry teed up the latest conversation due to comments he\u2019d received in the interim since the Commission tabled the item July 21 and a previous workshop in which most of the Board expressed a preference to wait until 2028 to improve the amendment\u2019s chances at passage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve received a few emails and read some stuff online, and I think there was some confusion at the last meeting,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it got lost in translation out in the public about whether we were postponing it or if the Board was in support of it. I wanted to use this time to clear the air that I\u2019ve heard nothing but support for the half-cent sales tax from all five of you up there.\u201d<\/p>\n
That confusion stemmed from the fact that the Commission had initially taken up the discussion during a workshop prior to the mid-July meeting, during which most commissioners expressed a preference for waiting until 2028. Because Vice-Chairman Larry Leet was subsequently absent on July 21 and Chairwoman Jamie Fowler had changed her mind since the workshop and now preferred two bites at the apple, the Board was equally divided 2-2 that day on running the amendment this year.<\/p>\n
Commissioners James Clasby and Erin Lowry still wanted to wait two years, hence the decision to postpone the decision until the latest meeting.<\/p>\n
District 5 Commissioner Cathy Townsend was the first to offer her viewpoint, alluding to the fact that, if the amendment fails this year, it would have to be reworded in 2028 as a new tax altogether.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll just start by saying I think two chances are better than one,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve not changed my opinion. I feel that if we put it out there for 26 and it doesn\u2019t pass, we have another opportunity. Changing the language is not that big of a deal \u2013 that\u2019s how we got it through the first time. We put it out there, we solved some wording mistakes, came back, restructured it and it passed a second time. So, [let\u2019s] put it out there and do as much education as we can leading up to it. Then if it doesn\u2019t pass, we know we have time for whatever has to be changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Erin Lowry, however, still disagreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d prefer to see it on the 2028 ballot for a number of reasons,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not really going to be a second chance because it\u2019s going to be seen, like George mentioned, as a new consumption tax. In the past, we haven\u2019t had the real estate amendment on there with the Homestead Exemption, so I think it\u2019s very different. So, my vote will be for 2028.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner James Clasby echoed that sentiment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis discussion today is if we want to move it to the 28 ballot, which I think is exactly what we discussed in our informal meeting,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s certain other entities \u2013 apparently from what I\u2019ve learned \u2013 that would like to bond out money early. That\u2019s really not the issue here: We\u2019re talking about which one would it more likely to be passed on. I\u2019m not interested in running in twice if it failed once. So, that will be another discussion that we have in 28 if it does fail.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clasby then enumerated the reasoning for his continued opposition to running it this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to confuse the voters [and] maybe even make people not like it,\u201d he continued. \u201cSince the previous meeting, everybody basically said yeah, I\u2019ve going to vote against it because I want to cut taxes because they\u2019re just foaming at the mouth with Amendment 3. I think it\u2019s very important that we keep it in the direction that we discussed at the informal meeting of moving it to the 28 ballot where it has the most chance of success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vice-Chairman Leet \u2013 like Chairwoman Fowler had on July 21 \u2013 now admitted he\u2019d also changed his mind since the workshop discussion, making him the swing voter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was on the side of the 2028 ballot because I was informed that we could only do it once,\u201d he explained. \u201cThen I found out we can change the wording. I do agree with Commissioner Clasby and think that it\u2019s not going to pass on this particular ballot. That being said, we have four years to educate the public to realize what this potential loss is, if it doesn\u2019t pass. So, I am on the side of running it twice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chairwoman Fowler then reiterated her thoughts from the previous two meetings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we had that informal, it wasn\u2019t clear to me that you could essentially get two bites at the apple,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI don\u2019t know how the voters are going to vote. For every person that says they\u2019re voting for Amendment 3, I have people that say they\u2019re not. I don\u2019t have great luck, so if we have the opportunity to get two bites to do it, then that is the side I\u2019m on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Clasby made a final plea to his colleagues before Commissioner Townsend made a motion to place the amendment on the 2026 ballot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wanted the Board to also keep in mind that if you want the School Board tax to pass, having this on there as well doesn\u2019t help it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Vice-Chairman Leet then seconded Townsend\u2019s aforementioned motion, which passed 3-2, with Commissioners Clasby and Lowry dissenting.<\/p>\n
Since the original surtax amendment passed in 2018, St. Lucie County has completed and paid for some 53 infrastructure projects, with an additional 37 projects underway or planned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE \u2013 In an effort to try and improve its chances at renewing the half-cent infrastructure surtax…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":["post-370610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-st_lucie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370610","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=370610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}