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Commission left to calm water woes

By GREG HAMILTON
Published July 2, 2006

Standing amid the wreckage of a failed attempt to set a funding source for county water and sewer projects, County Commissioner Jim Fowler made this accurate observation: "People want clean water, they just don't want to pay for it."

Those words are as true today as they were that day in 1997, when voters scuttled a referendum that would have boosted the sales tax a penny. Despite a barnstorming campaign by county officials that included more than 50 town meetings, even setting the vote for Earth Day to drive home the need to restore local waterways, voters gave the tax hike a lopsided death, with 67 percent voting no.

Estimates were that the increase would have raised $71-million for more than two dozen water-related projects around the county. The money did not come, and the projects were not done.

Five years before that, in November 1992, the commissioners tried to raise the sale tax a penny to fund dozens of water-related projects. Voters killed that attempt 61 percent to 39 percent. And the projects were not done.

It is not just water projects that Citrus County voters hate. Earlier that same year, in a September referendum, voters said no to a half-cent sales tax increase to buy and preserve for public use a 2,650-acre ranch. In 1990, they defeated a move to raise the sales tax 1 cent to pay for a new jail.

So, here is the situation we in Citrus County now face. The water-related projects that could have been started a decade ago, at much lower costs than today's inflated prices, died at the hands of the voters. The county's population has since grown tremendously, and the pollution has had years to get worse.

The feeling among voters back then was that they had no interest in paying for something in which they could see no direct benefit.

No one can say for sure whether that stance has softened any since the last referendum was tried or whether the thousands of new residents who have arrived in recent years are more inclined to help their neighbors. However, the continued grumbling over the commission's vote to raise the gas tax to pay for needed road improvements indicates that people remain firmly against any effort to spread these high costs over the entire population.

That, then, leaves one other option: Those who receive the benefit pay the bill. If you want your road paved, you pay. Same for streetlights and hydrants.

But what if the cost is more than you can possibly afford?

That is the situation that hundreds of property owners in Chassahowitzka now face. The County Commission has just approved a water supply system that will cost each property owner at least $6,361, not including more than $4,000 in hookup fees and other charges.

Add to that the assessment of at least $4,000, likely much more, for the sewer system that is heading their way, and the total price, including interest payments, is racing toward $20,000.

There are folks in Citrus County to whom $20,000 is a good golf outing or a new watch for their spouse, but none of them live in Chassahowitzka.

Commissioner Gary Bartell was roundly and unfairly criticized at Tuesday's meeting by Chassahowitkza residents who blame him for the rising costs, conveniently forgetting the countless hours that he has spent over the years securing state grants for the projects. Without the millions of dollars that he has managed to pry from the state, the assessments would be even higher. But that funding source is all but dry.

Bartell has also held many town hall meetings in the affected areas explaining the need for the systems and its costs. The complaints raised so loudly today were not being voiced back then.

Notwithstanding those who wish to debate, four years too late, whether these systems are even needed or if the groundwater and river are really polluted, the path for the county commissioners is clear. They must develop a funding formula for these water-related projects that is both fair to all residents while being sufficient to address the rising costs.

They could go back to the voters with a sales tax increase, and if the past is any indication, they will have their heads handed to them again. This is a poor option anyway, given the regressive nature of sales tax.

The only equitable solution is a hybrid funding formula that includes the customers paying the bulk of the costs, with a subsidy from the remainder of the county taxpayers. This would be money derived through a portion of their property taxes directed to this fund for these specific projects.

Why a property tax? Because it takes advantage of the huge taxpayers in the county, corporate giants such as Wal-Mart, Publix, Lowe's, Home Depot and Progress Energy that subsidize taxpayers. Imagine how high your taxes would be if these big companies did not contribute millions of dollars to the coffers.

Would they pass the higher costs along to consumers? Most assuredly, but those costs would be spread over their service areas, not just Citrus County.

Would raising the property tax put the county close to the 10-mill cap? Yes, which might translate into the county holding the line on other expenditures that are not nearly as vital as the health of our waters.

The benefits would be clear. The commissioners would put action behind the rhetoric of concern that they all have voiced for years. They would help residents not just in Chassahowitzka, but throughout Citrus.

Unlike a sales tax increase, which would require voter approval, the commissioners could make this property tax-fueled fund a reality all by themselves. Such a decision would be as politically courageous, and dangerous, as their vote to raise the gas tax. But the gas tax increase was the right step to address a vital community need, and this would be, too.

The people in Chassahowitzka have real and valid worries about whether the costs of these water and sewer systems will drive them out of their homes. The commissioners, in good conscience, cannot allow this to happen to any resident.

There is a way to set up this countywide fund to ensure that those who have paid utility assessments and hookup fees can get a break and to handle other such circumstances. None of those issues are reasons not to proceed with the fund.

Citrus County residents have had ample opportunity over the past decade to fix the problems with our polluted waterways and groundwater, and each time they have chosen to do nothing. Now, the commissioners must act for them.

[Last modified July 1, 2006, 23:50:00]