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Aug 10, 10:49 PM

County OKs putting green space tax on ballot

BY JIM WAYMER
FLORIDA TODAY

Voters in November could get a chance to choose whether to buy more green space.

By a 3-2 vote on Tuesday, Brevard County Commissioners decided that a tax to buy more green space should go on the Nov. 2 ballot. Commissioners Ron Pritchard, R-Merritt Island, and Jackie Colon, R-Palm Bay, dissented.

Commissioners plan to vote on the referendum's wording and to formally place it on the ballot at their Aug. 24 meeting. They must do so by Aug. 31 to meet the supervisor of elections' deadline.

"At this point, the only thing that could prevent it would be a commissioner changing their position," County Manager Tom Jenkins said after Tuesday's vote.

The proposed referendum would shift the existing Beaches and Riverfront tax -- due to disappear this year -- into the Environmentally Endangered Lands Program. It would ask voters whether they want to pay about 21 cents on every $1,000 of taxable property value to buy and manage conservation lands.

The tax would continue the current rate of .2085 mills for the Beaches and Riverfront tax. So the owner of a $100,000 home with a $25,000 homestead exemption would continue to pay a combined $34.39 a year to buy and maintain green space. That's $15.64 a year for the extended tax, plus $18.75 for EEL's existing tax of 25 cents per $1,000 of taxable property value.

In 1990, about 61 percent of Brevard voters approved the EEL program. The tax, which expires in 2011, generates about $5.7 million a year. But county officials say they need more cash on hand to buy the most important habitats before they fill with homes, businesses and other development. EEL controls about 18,000 acres.

Local biologists say the county needs to keep buying the most important habitats, such as scrub, pine flatwoods and oak hammocks to create corridors that connect existing EEL lands. They say that wildlife needs such connections for long-term survival. They've targeted about 70,000 acres for conservation.

"I really believe this is a no-brainer," said Carmine Ferraro, a Port St. John developer told commissioners.

Many in the audience wore green pins that said "Preserve Brevard."

But some told commissioners too much land is already in county hands.

"We have enough land preserved," said Bruce Wechsler, chairman of the Libertarian Party in Brevard. "Having the government control this much land is a dangerous precedent."

The tax would allow the county to borrow $60 million in bond money over 20 years.

Colon said November is too soon to put the question to voters, because it doesn't allow enough time to answer concerns about how successful the EEL program has been.

"There's a lot of education that has to happen," Colon said. "That's just not the way we do business."

Contact Waymer at 242-3663 or jwaymer@flatoday.net