Vote to test support for tax district

Beverly Hills voters will be able to weigh in on a proposal that would pay for community projects.

By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 12, 2000

INVERNESS -- When Beverly Hills residents go to the polls this November to elect a president and scores of state and local officials, they also will vote on a proposed taxing district that would fund community improvements.

The ballot item will ask Beverly Hills voters whether they would support the creation of a Municipal Services Benefit Unit, a taxing district that would charge each homeowner $9 per year to plant new shrubs, add street lights and mow the grass along public roads in Beverly Hills.

The vote in November would not automatically create a MSBU for Beverly Hills; however, the tally would show county commissioners the level of support for creation of such a taxing district.

"We feel this is the fastest, fairest, cheapest and most inclusive way to gauge the public support for this," said Michael Colbert, chairman of the Beverly Hills Community Council, during the County Commission meeting Tuesday.

The crowd of Beverly Hills residents that packed into commission chambers Tuesday afternoon applauded when the commission voted 4-0, with commissioner Jim Fowler absent, to put the non-binding referendum on the ballot.

The referendum is just the first step toward creating the MSBU. If enough residents support the idea at the polls, the commission would set two public hearings and then decide whether to create a Beverly Hills MSBU, County Attorney Larry Haag said.

"There is plenty of opportunity for public input," Haag said, noting that those public meetings would be held in Beverly Hills.

Haag also said that, if the MSBU were created to charge $9 per home each year, the MSBU Advisory Board could not raise the fee unless the proposed increase was discussed at two more public hearings and approved by the County Commission.

Beverly Hills is the largest unincorporated community in the county, and does not have any way to pay for the improvements that Colbert and others say are needed.

The Beverly Hills Community Council put together a $46,000 budget covering improvements from better signs at the entrance near Sugarberry to cutting the grass along Forest Ridge Boulevard.

With an estimated 5,400 homes in Beverly Hills, Colbert said the proposed fee would come down to $9 annually from each home. The fee would be included in residents' property taxes.

One resident at the commission meeting Tuesday said the fee was too low and wouldn't pay for all the needed improvements.

But resident Donna Buechly said the community is fine, and there is no need for another tax on the residents.

"All of my friends and neighbors and myself, we don't want it," Buechly told commissioners. "We feel it's not necessary. We think the county takes good enough care of us as it is."

Jane Fricano, president of the Beverly Hills Civic Association, said the only way to find out what the community wants is to have the voter referendum that the commissioners approved.

In other commission news:

*Commissioners decided "with great reluctance" to drop their challenge to Property Appraiser Ron Schultz's budget in exchange for Schultz returning $29,797 of a disputed $92,514 to the county.

The county filed its appeal of Schultz's $2-million budget last October because officials said Schultz did not follow the county's budgeting guidelines.

The settlement stops the county's complaint from coming before Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet for a July 25 review that the county would likely lose, County Attorney Larry Haag said.

County taxes pay for Schultz's budget, but the commissioners have no say in approving it. The power to approve all county property appraiser budgets rests with the state Department of Revenue.

Commissioner Gary Bartell said Citrus and other counties are frustrated with their lack of control over the property appraiser budgets. He suggested the commission send letters to Bush, the Florida Association of Counties and Citrus County's legislators calling for a new law that would put budget oversight back in the hands of the county commissioners.

County joins utility purchasing group. Commissioners voted 3-1 to join the Governmental Utility Authority, a coalition with four other counties that buys up private water and wastewater systems that are desirable and willing to sell.

The authority, made up of appointees from Lee, Nassau, Polk and Sarasota counties, issues its own bonds and uses the money to buy utility systems.

The authority, not any of the counties, owns and operates the systems. But the arrangement gives Citrus County, through its authority representative, a hand in running a utility system without necessarily buying it.

The commissioners appointed Assistant County Administrator Richard Wesch to represent Citrus County on the authority.

Commissioners Brad Thorpe, Gary Bartell and Roger Batchelor said the plan will allow the county to acquire the smaller systems in the eastern half of the county that charge high prices for low-quality water. The county could serve those customers more efficiently if under one big system, they said.

But several critics spoke out against the plan, raising concerns about the county's costs and removed accountability working through the authority to acquire utilities.

"The taxpayers and the ratepayers in this county want you to be accountable for the rates they pay, not a GUA, not someone else," said Lecanto resident Jim McIntosh, a candidate for the commission seat Thorpe is vacating this fall.

Commissioner Vicki Phillips voted against joining the authority, saying she wanted the county to have a more developed plan of which utilities to buy before joining the group.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.