- April 25, 2024
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Now that the Volusia County Council has voted to increase impact fees, the focus is shifting back to a half-cent sales tax referendum, as discussed at the Roundtable of Volusia County Elected Officials meeting at the Daytona Beach International Airport on Monday, Nov. 19.
The half-cent sales tax referendum was placed on hold back in May by the council, despite having the full support from all 16 municipalities, due to the need for an impact fee discussion and an unexpected audit requirement by the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability imposed by legislature. For the last six months, residents spoke before the council saying the only way to get a sales tax passed in Volusia would be to address impact fees. Consequently, after a series of public workshops, a new study and feedback from citizens and developers, the County Council voted on Nov. 13 to phase an impact fee increase over the next two years.
After the council votes to implement these new increases at its meeting on Dec. 4, the first adjustment will take 90 days to be in effect. The new impact fees will be fully implemented in 2020, just two years before the council is set to re-evaluate them once again.
South Daytona City Manager Joe Yarbrough said there's no reason to think the unanimous support from the cities for a half-cent sales tax has gone away, as the infrastructure needs have not changed. What all the officials should be concerned about is making sure the public is on board as well, he said, since the sales tax will never move forward without their approval.
"We want to make sure — we don't want to put anyone on the spot — but that we're exactly where we left off back last summer," Yarbrough said. "Ready to go."
Nineteen counties passed 19 sales tax referendums in Florida in the recent election, Yarbrough also added.
Clay Ervin, Volusia County director of Growth and Resource Management, walked the elected officials through a concise version of the presentation given to the public during the county's four impact fee workshops. He said the council voted against raising impact fees in 2007 and suspended some fees 2011 to help the economy.
“We have done something with [impact fees], it’s just we tend to forget that we were in one of the deepest, darkest recession for a long time,” Ervin said.
He also addressed the "secret" impact fee study brought to light in June. Ervin said that there was a "slight delay" in bringing the study forward, since the county was working with Duncan Associates to remedy a few factors in the study, including reinstating the original number of land uses and coming up with fees that lined up with Volusia's economic development goals.
“There really wasn’t any secret study," Ervin said. "We were basically working with the consultant to get it out as quickly as possible.”
County Council Chair Ed Kelley said he hopes the five new mayors and new city manager in the county can see that raising impact fees alone won't solve Volusia's infrastructure needs.
"The needs haven't changed," Kelley said. "The improvements aren't being made, and hopefully the new leadership coming to the cities will understand that and lead their council and commissions as they see fit."
