Monroe Commissioner Craig Cates joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
Potential property tax reform coming from the state is something that’s being watched very closely.
Cates said, “Obviously we’re very concerned, and not only the impact that it’s going to make on this, how deep that impact will go because the decisions that they make, and then it has to go, obviously, to the citizens of the state. And it could be very serious, or it could be a small impact. We’re all trying to save taxpayers dollars everywhere we can, but I’d rather not be forced to cut things that in certain areas is very necessary in your community, which could be painful for the residents. So it does worry us. Because we are so linear, we can’t have just one central area. Although the city of Key West is the county seat, it’s hard to have all the services based out of Key West when we’re 120 miles long and the county has grown all through the Keys, even though a third, about a third of the county lives in Key West and Stock Island, which is the majority of the tourist businesses in at this area, but the residents, so many of them live all throughout the Keys. So we need to be there to provide the services they need, so many fire departments we need, the sheriff’s departments all through the Keys, building department, all the services that we provide. We really need multiple locations, and that makes it expensive.”
There’s also talk in Tallahassee about re-visiting insurance affordability.
Cates said, “We’re hearing good things coming from Tallahassee. Haven’t personally seen that that yet, but they said that the insurance companies, Citizens and some of the private ones, will be reducing their rates this year, which sounds amazing. They say the impact of changing the process for the lawsuits and having it so they could sue back and have them pay for the all the expenses they’ve created if the lawsuit fails, I think it’s slowing so many lawsuits down and that was the expense, the huge expense that we were having in Florida and it was driving up our rates. I believe the percentage of it, the state of Florida had a small percentage of the claims, but the highest percentage of lawsuits in the whole country, so that definitely affects the expense to the insurance companies, and now we can save money by lowering the rates.”
Workforce housing is also an ongoing issue for the county.
Cates said, “We had a tour of Stock Island yesterday, had the sheriff’s department, our planning department, our code enforcement, we’re looking at some of the projects out there, some of the neighborhoods, the derelict cars on the street, and how we’re going to help clean that up and the parking to help the residents. But one thing interesting I heard from one of the attorneys was that a lot of the affordable housing projects are not completely full now, and they’re dropping some of their rates even below the affordable rates to fill them. I thought that was very interesting. We’re getting more of these units online, which is helping the problems that were happening. So I hope that continues, and I’m sure the county commission will continue in this direction to provide more of that. And hopefully one day it won’t be as bad as it has been in the past.”
Removing derelict vessels from the waterways is an important project as well.
Cates said, “That’s been a big project of mine personally, because of the impact I see being on the water so much and growing up here, the impact of these vessels and the damage they do when a storm and they drag across the flats, it takes a long time to recover from that. But we’re definitely moving in the right direction. Our mooring field, I keep saying it’s moving forward, but government moves so slow, but we are so close. See light at the end of the tunnel here with the project in Key West is getting much closer. We’re doing some negotiation now with the lawsuit that’s holding it up, and hopefully we can move past that and get that project moving forward, and get it online, and then we’ll be able to enforce the 90 day anchoring laws, and then that will make these vessels have to move every 90 days by their own power and be on the anchor so the vessels that are just left out there until they sink, we’ll be able to remove them while they’re floating, which will be much, much cheaper than raising them off the bottom, and be doing any damage. So there’s a lot of good things covered together. It’s amazing how long it takes, but that’s why the benefit of having a great state Representative Jim Mooney and Senator Ana Maria Rodriguez that stays with us, works hard to keep this stuff moving forward, and we’re very fortunate we have a commission and staff that works the same way. So I’m very excited about what’s going to happen this year, and I think the residents should be also.”
The Save our First Responders 5K and Wounded Warrior Ride last weekend showed what a supportive community the Keys really are.
Cates said, “I’m so proud of our community and the way we support our first responders, our wounded warriors, and so many of the organizations. We’re blessed to live in this community, when you look around other parts of the country, all the difficulty we’re having, we’re lucky to work, wake up here every day and be in this paradise that we all live in. What really warms my heart is just the people here in the community, and it makes you want to go and continue to work with the community, because when you ask for help, people just stand up everywhere, and it’s a blessing, and we’re very fortunate, and I think we’re going in the right direction, and I think we’re going to have a great year, but we can’t let up off the gas. We’ve got to keep this community moving forward, and I’m sure we will. Be thankful for all the blessings we have, and look out for your neighbors and work together. The fighting doesn’t accomplish anything. We can all disagree, but at the end of the day, we all live here together, and we all want the same goal, what’s best for the community. So let’s all work together, which we do, and we will continue as we watch the rest of the country and the difficulties they’re having. So I just like to give that message out and thank everyone for the people they are.”