Monroe County Mayor Michelle Lincoln joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
The next county commission meeting will be at the end of January.
Lincoln said, “We’ve pushed it to the very end of January for multiple reasons. One, the commissioners are all busy doing other things. I know I’m going to be in Washington, DC, all of next week, representing our state at the national level, sitting on a panel for FEMA and the new FEMA Act, and being with other presidents of state associations. We’re going to be up there for a week, and then the following week, we have the Florida Association of Counties in Tallahassee the week of the 20th, so the county commission meeting will not be until, I believe it’s the 28th of January, which really pushes it back, but it really did also allow our wonderful, tremendous staff to have to really enjoy the holidays without having to be worrying about putting together agenda items and all the work that goes on behind the scenes to make a county commission meeting run smoothly.”
With the legislative session beginning in Tallahassee, there are a lot of issues to keep an eye on.
Lincoln said, “For some of us, we consider this a very anxious time, and for others, a very exciting time. And we do watch everything closely. Our Director of Legislative Affairs, she’s probably goes on maybe three hours of sleep every day during legislative session. But the good news is our policy bill is has been presented, and both our Representative Jim Mooney and our Senator Ana Maria Rodriguez, have both filed their bills, and it’s titled area of critical state concern, and it’s really kind of short and sweet this year with three of the board of the Board of County Commissioners top priorities, the first always, is the extension of the Florida Keys forever funding that we receive that is about to expire. It was a 10 year approval for that $5 million that we receive every year that was part of the Florida Stewardship, the Keys Stewardship Act that our then House Rep Holly Merrill Raschein got through and and now it is definitely something that we truly use every single year. So our first priority, obviously, is to keep that in play for another 10 years and then the other two, the budget season was tough this year, and also looking in at what is going to happen with property taxes this year, it’s interesting that our county has already been doing these things and trying to cut funds and cut property taxes in our own way, and have been denied year after year when we asked for this, but every year, and we’re asking again this year, we have asked for a tax exemption for single and two family residents that rent affordably, so a home that is not occupied by the owner and is not used for vacation rental, but is rented at an affordable rate for our workforce here in Monroe County, we want them to be able to have the same homestead exemption that you and I have on our homes that we live in. Every year we’ve been asking for this, and every year it’s been denied. And I’m thinking, well, this year, especially in light of the fact that that is the big theme of the state, is property tax reductions and making it more affordable for people who homestead their properties, I’m really hoping that we get some traction on this this year, and then the other specific request and priority we have is the exemption of the performance bonds that the Habitat for Humanity housing has to put up for the housing that they’re building on county owned property. Again, it’s not a lot, but it all adds up. That is kind of our theme this year as an area of critical state concern, and I’m very happy that both Anna Maria Rodriguez and Jim Mooney are on the same page with us and have similar language in their bills, and that they will now move them through their committees that they have to go through, and hopefully they’ll make it all the way through on the floor without any additions, subtractions or whatever happens with bills when it’s in the legislative session.”
Monroe County did manage to put aside about $2 million for disaster funding in the 2026 budget.
Lincoln said, “Our team watches what’s going on with all of the bills that are being submitted by the different but House Reps and Senators, and we do keep an eye on it. We are tracking all of the tax reform bills, and also our finance team is already plugging those numbers in just to see what that would mean for our county, and I would imagine that when we have a better view of what will possibly be put on a referendum, we will then hold a workshop, or make it a special county commission meeting where we really dive into what that would look like for our specific county.”