Tax collector's fees infuse $3.3M into county budget

By BARBARA BEHRENDT, Times Staff Writer
Published October 24, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - Tax Collector Juanita Sikes showed up before the County Commission on Tuesday bearing a very welcome gift: about $3.3-million.

The money is the county's share of $3.6-million that the Tax Collector took in during the past fiscal year for services such as titles and registrations for motor vehicles, tax notices, business tax licenses, hunting and fishing and driver's licenses.

Those fees, along with general fund revenues, are used to operate the Tax Collector's office. Sikes is required by law to turn over to the county whatever excess revenues are collected.

She told commissioners that this year's total is above last year's $2.3-million, but she does not expect to see another year with so much money returned to the county.

The School Board, the Southwest Florida Water Management District and community development districts share the remaining $300,000.

Property Appraiser Alvin Masourek also attended the commission meeting and he said his office was able to return $504,000.

- Commissioners heard an overview of the 2007-08 Pavement Management Program, the county's program to maintain residential and collector roads to an acceptable standard.

The program includes pavement preservation for 125 miles of residential roads, rehabilitation of 21.5 miles of collector roads and reconstruction of 1.4 miles of collector roads. Total costs for the projects included are nearly $7.3-million, and funding comes from the gas tax, the county general fund and the Transportation Trust Fund.

- Commissioners approved a recommendation by the Veteran's Roundtable seeking the county's agreement to give veterans' groups the priority usage of Veterans Memorial Park for Memorial Day, Veterans Day and POW/MIA Day activities. Also, the county has agreed to allow veterans' groups to use a section of the park near the flags at the entrance as a place to locate future memorials and benches. "It sounds like an excellent idea," said County Commission Chairman Jeff Stabins.

[Last modified October 23, 2007, 20:22:19]