Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Lealman residents pay more, deal or no

Annexation deals would have Lealman subsidizing cities.

By ANNE LINDBERG, Times Staff Writer
Published October 31, 2007

PINELLAS PARK- After seven years and a task force appointed by the Legislature, there's still no lasting resolution to reduce the financial loss that Lealman's fire district bears when parts of the community are annexed.

Instead, there's a task force report that says the solution is to let the annexing cities and Lealman come to their own agreement.

But there is no agreement, and it would not appear that St. Petersburg and Pinellas Park have any real need to reach one.

A state law designed to solve the problem will sunset July 1 and, without any agreement, the cities can annex at will without reimbursing Lealman for providing first-response fire service to the annexed properties.

It's in the cities' best interest to let that law, known as the Farkas bill, lapse and to let negotiations drag on beyond that date. As annexations continued, the entire burden would fall on Lealman's taxpayers, who would be subsidizing the cities.

Lealman wants to extend the Farkas bill, which requires that annexing cities pay the fire district at its millage rate for five years after the annexation. Pinellas Park and St. Petersburg have lobbied hard against that and, it appears, the Pinellas legislative delegation will let the law lapse.

Instead, the delegation created a task force that began meeting July 9. The duty of the task force was to advise whether the Farkas bill should be extended and to provide suggestions for ways to solve the problem. The hope was that all parties - St. Petersburg, Pinellas Park, Lealman and Pinellas County - would hash out an agreement.

The report is due Thursday, and there's no agreement. Instead, there's a 3-to-1 recommendation that the Farkas provision be allowed to sunset.

There's a conceptual agreement between Pinellas Park and Lealman. Lealman will provide first-run fire service to properties Pinellas Park annexes, and the city will pay it about 2.1752 mills per parcel, which is the amount the county pays that city for providing fire service in part of the unincorporated area. That's less than the 3.6927 mills Lealman levies to provide that service. Lealman taxpayers would foot the difference.

That agreement hinges on Lealman and St. Petersburg being able to work out their differences. That has been harder. St. Petersburg only wants to pay Lealman 1.7487 mills. Lealman has refused.

But at Monday's task force meeting, Lealman made a counteroffer. Pay at the district rate for three years, then drop the payment to St. Petersburg's rate for 10 years. Again, Lealman taxpayers would make up the difference.

In fact, under any of the three scenarios, it's the Lealman taxpayer who pays to subsidize the cities. The only difference is whether they foot the whole cost for first-run fire service to annexed areas or part of the cost.

And we're talking about some of the poorest taxpayers in the county who are already paying for the process, whether it's in lobbyists' fees to try to persuade legislators to extend the Farkas bill; attorney fees to file lawsuits against the cities and to provide advice during task force negotiations; or the fee for the mediator, a cost the Legislature assigned to Lealman.

Of course, the cities have their own costs - lobbyists to argue against the extension of the Farkas bill, attorney fees, and the time officials have spent negotiating and arguing the issue.

Even the county has expenses - lobbyists, who added the issue of annexation to their roster; and staff members who attended task force meetings, negotiating sessions and spent time drafting the report.

It's unclear how much has been spent so far. But the costs seem to be mounting as Lealman thinks about continuing its lawsuits against Pinellas Park and St. Petersburg.

In the meantime, Tish Elston, St. Petersburg's deputy mayor, said she would take Lealman's offer back to her people. If an agreement is reached before the task force report is turned in Thursday, a notation of it will be added to the report.

"Maybe we'll get our miracle," Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch said of the prospect of an agreement.

But no one is holding their breath.

[Last modified October 30, 2007, 22:44:49]