George Garrett, City Manager of Marathon, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on in the city.
What’s going on with the MSTU, municipal services taxing unit, for the Fishermen’s Community Hospital in Marathon?
Garrett said, “I know that there have been quite a number of people paying attention. But just kind of recap, if you will, decisions made by the Council on the 31st. Our council, amongst all of the parties, a part of the hospital, MSTU had reserved the right to review the MSTU every year, which potentially meant that we would suggest to the county, since we didn’t adopt the MSTU, they did, by law, they had the authority to do that. We did not. But we reviewed it every year and again, up until this year, I guess there have always been debate about whether we should continue it, because there were controversies surrounding the MSTU. That said we’ve always re-upped the MSTU and it’s continued. So as we come to this year, there was about, depending on whose accounting you were talking to, or about it was somewhere in the neighborhood of $750,000 remaining in a commitment in the MSTU to $15 million. So if we had proceeded with a half mill on that MSTU, then it would have generated more revenue than was necessary to meet $15 million. So after debate and discussion and conversation, in fact, even with the county, outside of our own meetings, our city council, determined that they would want to proceed forward, meet their commitment on the $15 million, but they would suggest that based on the numbers that were coming out of the appraiser’s office for values in the area that they would reduce the millage, or suggest reducing the millage to an amount that would cover the $15 million and I’m going to say that that’s roughly 1/3 the half mill, so somewhere in the neighborhood of .15 to .2 mills and we’ll just have to see as the values come out in June. I think the county commission, don’t want to commit from them, but I have talked to individual county commissioners, and it seems to be something that they’re willing to bear and will take up here in the next month or two.”
With that millage reduction, would there be a reduction in taxpayers’ tax burden?
Garrett confirmed, “It would and I’m going to use my own home as an example. It’s probably a little above average value, but my bill, I went out and looked at it last from last year was $505 for that MSTU. So if you cut that in roughly a third, it would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 this year, plus or minus depending on the value of your home and whether your homesteaded and things like that.”
Where do those funds end up going?
Garrett said, “If you read the original MSTU, apparently it goes to indigent care. Period. Doesn’t specify Baptist. Of course, we all knew it was Baptist and we all knew it was Fisherman’s Hospital, and that’s where the money has been going to date. Just so everybody understands how that occurs, you figure out what your tax values are for a given area. In this case, the MSTU runs from Seven Mile Bridge to basically the Long Key Bridge. So that includes Key Colony Beach, Marathon and a portion of the county. So figure out your values, the millage is half mill based on the ordinance, and whatever value or whatever dollar amount that creates, but potentially, the way their MSTU read, it could potentially go to another hospital. For instance, Lower Keys. We don’t expect that. It’s never happened. The money goes through the tax collector. It is delivered to the county. The county distributes it based on billing from Baptist, and we see those numbers every year, and that is what’s been happening. Baptist submits bills, and the county pays the bills, and again, it’s all indigent care, which I think the controversy about this ordinance had to do with the initial interest to help the hospital rebuild a structure, Fisherman’s Hospital, and in order to do that, the only way you could do it, if you didn’t go to referendum, was to do it through indigent care, which is something that the county commission could actually do without a referendum, and therein the controversy arose because everybody was told it was going to be for infrastructure, for capital projects, and it turns out, it turns out to be indigent care. Okay, well, how does that all help? It helps the hospital in the simple sense that they aren’t paying for indigent care anymore, so they can put their own money into capital. So it’s an offset. Again, we can talk about it, debate it, whatever, but that’s been the issue and the controversy over the last few years.”
Is that tax exclusive to the Marathon area and Key Colony Beach?
Garrett said, “It was created specifically for the Fisherman’s Hospital complex, but you go back and read the ordinance that created the MSU at the county level, and it actually doesn’t say Fisherman’s Hospital specifically. So potentially, if there had been an overrun this year, for instance, using the half mill instead of a reduced millage, then where do you put the money? Well, it says you can use it for hospital indigent care. So potentially, that could have gone down to another hospital system, like, for instance, Lower Keys, but it’s not happened. We adjust the millage. It won’t happen. In fact, the intent was to serve the construction of or assist offsetting some cost towards the construction of Fisherman’s Hospital here.”