Monroe County Commissioner Jim Scholl joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
The Florida Defense Support Commission held a dinner recently.
Scholl explained, “The Florida Defense Support Commission was established almost 20 years ago. There are 12 appointed members, of which I happen to be one, but four from the Governor, four from the House and four from the Senate. We’re all appointed from all around the state, but in areas where there are military bases. So our job is to help the communities outside the fence line of the base to do things that will improve the quality of life or the mission readiness for the military. And we do that through lobbying our legislature up there in Tallahassee. And then we also have control over several million dollars of grant funds that are provided by the state to do things again, to help the communities where the military installations are. That’s our job. Once a quarter, we have an in person meeting. So obviously, this one was down here, and Naval Air Station Key West was the secondary host. I’ve been on the commission for three years, and this was the longest session we’ve had as far as the time span. Most of the commission members arrived Tuesday. Admiral Jeff Randall had a reception at his house that evening. That was very nice. So just a social get together with members of the community. Then on Wednesday, we went to JITAF South and got the entire command briefing there. Then we went to Sigsbee charter school to talk to the staff there and look at that school, which obviously is on the military installation down here. And then we had the dinner Wednesday night, that was a very nice event at the Little White House. Then yesterday was the formal meeting out at the Double Tree here in Key West, where Captain Thompson gave a very good brief on Naval Air Station Key West. But we had other briefings on our responsibilities for grant funds and other things and, of course, the ever necessary update on Sunshine Law rules which we have to abide by, which I’ve been doing for years down here at the city and the county. But those things are important to make sure that none of us do anything that would not be appropriate with regard to the sunshine law in the state of Florida.”
Scholl was appointed by the governor for the commission.
He said, “It’s a very great group of individuals representing the entire state, and we all absolutely understand that common purpose of how do we support our military here in the state of Florida?”
Were there any discussions about an increased need with the issues in the Middle East?
Scholl said, “We had a brief discussion on being able to accept in the state of Florida, not necessarily Key West but, but deployed families, for example, Bahrain. We have a US Naval installation in Bahrain over there in the Persian Gulf. Well, they’re sending all the families back to the States because of the ongoing conflict. So various communities that have military installations, whether they may have been previously or not, but for the families to be able to have places to come back and live for the duration of the conflict over there in the Middle East right now. So that was a discussion. And of course, a lot of the deployed forces were stationed in Florida at one time, or maybe now, for the Navy folks that are in Jacksonville that are all deployed so, but their families, if they were over there, primarily in Bahrain, then they’re going to be coming back to the states.”
The state budget still seems to be at an impasse.
Scholl said, “They officially ended the legislative session last Friday, a week ago, but three issues were incomplete, and the biggest one is the budget. There’s a $1.3 billion difference between the Florida House and the Florida Senate, so they will have a special session starting, I believe, the week after Easter and the session will be impaneled, probably for as long as that piece takes, because our fiscal year for the state of Florida starts on 1 July. So they have until June to finalize a budget. And once they do that, there is a 72 hour cooling off period. They call it for the budget before it actually gets submitted to the governor. And of course, in Florida, our governor has line item veto capability, so it will be an interesting process, although last year they were further apart and they had to go back for a special session just for the budget. But the other thing that’s been looming all year is the property tax reform that has been proposed. And the House came up with seven different proposals that got vetted, and they were down to about three, but the Senate has never even taken that up yet, so whether there’s going to be true property tax reform is yet to be seen. But there are three proposals that still exist, but the three of them all deal with homestead exemption increases and some tax relief for senior citizens are the two subject areas that look like may actually go forward and end up on the ballot in November for the voters to decide if they want to officially approve some changes to our property taxes.”
How is the county doing with state funding?
Scholl said, “I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about Representative Jim Mooney and State Senator Ana Maria Rodriguez. They both have been great champions for the issues that are important to the Florida Keys and our Florida Keys Forever funds and the Florida Keys Stewardship Act funds, they were authorized. The Stewardship funds for another 10 years, but of course, the appropriations are there this year, $20 million for the environmental things that we do down here, and then another $5 million for land acquisition. We buy a lot of properties that are undeveloped and prevent them from being developed with the funds that we get from the state, just in order to help preserve the environment and again, help protect the areas where we would prefer that that development doesn’t happen. So both those funds are amazing. But especially the Stewardship Act funds. We do canal restoration, all sorts of environmental things, again, to try to preserve this wonderful environment that we have down here in the Florida Keys.”