Manatee wants to pay for flooding improvements but not with a new stormwater fee
A new fee that would help Manatee County pay for improvements that reduce flooding may be dead in the water.
After a yearlong hiatus, county staff presented a completed report on the stormwater fee to the Board of County Commissioners. Staff previously conducted public workshops before putting the plan on hold to work out several issues with the proposal.
During a discussion at Tuesday’s work session, several commissioners indicated that they had no intention of moving forward with what they called a new tax on residents.
“I will not support a new tax. We have the financial resource to tackle the issue,” said Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge, who acknowledged that he represents District 3, one of the parts of the county that is most susceptible to flooding.
“It doesn’t look like the votes are here to do a stormwater fee,” added Commissioner Vanessa Baugh. “Let’s get real and put this in the budget.”
First pitched in 2019, the stormwater fee sought to charge property owners a scaling cost based on the total square footage of impervious surfaces, including the square footage of rooftop and concrete space on the land.
Those funds would be used to “enhance the level of service” for the county’s stormwater management program, which includes clearing pipes, cleaning drainage ditches, and other services that should reduce the impact of heavy rain.
Commissioners put the program on pause in November 2019, citing a number of questions that needed to be answered before the stormwater fee could be implemented.
Every other municipality in Manatee County has already implemented a stormwater fee. As proposed, the stormwater fee would have cost the owner of an average single-family either $58 or $88 a year based on which option the county chose to move forward with.
If approved, any improvements wouldn’t happen immediately, noted Chad Butzow, the county’s director of the public works department.
“It’s big-picture work that takes time and effort to see that change,” Butzow said.
But on the campaign trail and in previous meetings, newly elected commissioners pledged to keep taxes low and look instead to stick to the county’s budget reserves.
“My personal view is that we have the cash to do this,” said Commissioner George Kruse. “I think at this point, we’d be remiss to see if this isn’t something we can pay for with reserves.”
Moving forward, commissioners said they would prefer to prioritize stormwater improvement projects that would have the most sizable impact on the community.
“I’m trying to keep an open mind. I’m not for a new tax. You know this,” Baugh told Butzow. “I need to know what projects you need the most and how much it would cost.”
Butzow assured commissioners that he could come up with a list of projects that should be prioritized ahead of the county’s upcoming budget process later this year. He said the process first began in 2017 when a major rain event prior to Hurricane Irma devastated the county.
“The stormwater fee isn’t the end-all to everything,” Butzow said. “It’s a piece of the puzzle as we talk about what kind of stormwater system and maintenance system we want.”
This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
