Monroe County 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.
With the state hitting budget impasses, that creates concerns in the county for fiscal spending.
Cates said, “I believe they’re $1.4 million apart, the Senate and the House with their budgets, and the ones that still up for uncertainty is the Stewardship fund, appropriations, how much it’ll be, and also the pump out funding, which is so important to the Keys, but pumping the sewer out of the boats. I believe it’s not funded in the House, yet, it is funded in the Senate, and then Florida Forever funding, some of that funding is up in the air, so the distribution will be uncertain, how much we will get from that funding, and also the Resilient Florida grant funding, which is used a lot for different environmental issues, that funding is uncertain also. The property tax, well, what happens is, if it goes to what is already voted on in the House about eliminating the homestead exemption tax, that’ll affect the Keys, about $34 to $36 million will come out of our budget as soon as that happens, and we’re not allowed to cut any of the first responders, public safety, any of that. We can’t take any of that away so that all come out of the general fund, which will have a huge impact on the Florida Keys and all the services that we provide. So that kind of uncertainty has got us nervous and will be very difficult for our budgeting next year, and be very difficult on the citizens. Just the House that’s going to be their special session when they come back, to see if they can work that out. It could be a lot worse than that, but that’s the one that the House has passed, but the Senate has not done anything along those lines yet. So they need it in both of them. If they don’t come up with an agreement, then the governor has nothing to sign, but I’m sure he’ll keep calling special sessions until they come up with some kind of agreement.”
Would the property tax issue have to go to a voter referendum?
Cates said, “Yes, after they pass that and agree to put it on the ballot, it’ll be on the ballot for November, and it’ll have to have 60% majority vote on it. It’s not just 51%, it’s 60% which will be difficult to pass anyway, but our concerns, if it does pass, it’s going to make a big impact, and we could understand that the taxes, and I think that DOGE and all the of the municipalities and the counties are trying to lower and be very frugal with the tax money. Last year, we cut $45 million out of the county budget, which was difficult, but we had to eliminate 18 jobs and some other services. But that being said, there’s more to work on, I’m sure, in the coming year, but to take this hit all of a sudden would be very, very difficult and very painful for the county and the citizens which we represent. At the same time they were talking about another bill they had there, but luckily, it did not pass, was to eliminate licensing, which the counties and cities charge. And that would have taken $500,000 out of the budget immediately. Also at the same time, they want to cut property taxes, so they’re kind of all over the place up there. We’re hoping with these special sessions, they can just concentrate on these issues and come together with something that’s reasonable and something that we can accomplish.”
Senate Bill 1134 has also caused some concern because it could directly affect funding, maybe even with the Tourist Development Council. It passed the Senate recently and is on to the governor’s office right now.
Cates said, “It prohibits governments from funding, carrying out or promoting DEI initiatives with tax dollars, which the TDC funding is also tax dollars. A lot of people didn’t understand that when we had issues in the past, but it is tax dollars, and it belongs to the citizens of Monroe County, and it comes under our purview. But that being said, the interpretation of these DEI initiatives is where it’s difficult because it’s vague, and how do you exactly define that? And in one person’s view, it is breaking the rules and another is not. So those are the kind of things we’ll have to be dealing with. But the consequences are a commissioner could be fined or removed from office as a penalty. So if they come in now with a heavy hand on the penalties, with the definition of what you can and can’t do is kind of vague, so we’re working through that, trying to to identify this thing and clarify some things as we move forward. We’re very fortunate to have Senator Ana Maria Rodriguez and Representative Mooney fighting for us up there. They take their positions very seriously and definitely fight for the citizens of Monroe County. We’re very thankful to have them in office.”
Thanks to a lot of efforts, the Florida Forever conservation funding will continue.
Cates said, “We’re very fortunate. It was sponsored by our representatives, and it passed 109 to zero in the House and 38 to zero in the Senate. So it’s 100%, which we’re very fortunate. And it’s dedicated Florida Forever conservation funding for land acquisition in the Keys, and also some affordable housing development costs for Habitat for Humanity, that was part of it, which was was very good for those to keep the cost down, and it’s very important for ownership of young people with their new home and affordable housing. And also they tacked on right there at the end, Apalachicola National Estuary reserve. They extended the distance of the buffer zone for no oil drilling from 10 to 30 miles. So helped protect that national reserve there. So it’s a lot of good things coming out, don’t get me wrong. Tallahassee is doing good stuff, but the uncertainty is the difficulty on municipalities and counties as we try to move forward.”