Manatee leaders want to reduce flooding. Here’s how much it might cost you

Manatee County officials are considering charging residents a new stormwater fee to reduce widespread flooding issues.

The fee would add millions to the budget for cleaning canals and waterways and enhancing the county’s stormwater system, which staff say could use major improvements.

Officials pursued a similar measure in 2019, but after pushback from residents and a change in county leadership, commissioners abandoned the idea. But after last year’s hurricane season brought record rainfall and storm surge to Manatee County, leaders say it’s time to reconsider.

Commissioners have not yet held a vote on a stormwater fee, but several have voiced support for the idea. Many other Florida counties, including Sarasota County, charge such a fee.

At a recent workshop, staff presented several options for creating a stormwater fee and gave a rough estimate of what it might cost homeowners. Here’s a look at those numbers.

How much could Manatee County stormwater fee cost?

The county has no dedicated funding source for stormwater management and upgrades. Instead, those costs are paid from a patchwork of sources like solid waste tipping fees, the county’s gas tax fund and the general fund.

Current annual stormwater costs are around $21 million, Public Works Director Chad Butzow said. If the county wants to seriously improve its stormwater program, those costs could roughly double, Butzow said.

Using $41.4 million as an example figure, Butzow showed options for how the county could raise those funds from homeowners:

• One option is a dedicated countywide millage rate for stormwater on property tax bills. A rate of 0.58 mills would be needed to raise $41.4 million. For the average Manatee County homeowner, that would cost about $191 per year.
  
  
• Another option is a stormwater fee charged to homeowners in unincorporated areas on a monthly or yearly basis. Butzow estimated the fee at $15.60 per month or $187 per year for the average homeowner, based on numbers calculated in 2019 and updated for population growth.
  
  
• The county could create “drainage maintenance districts” that have unique fees based on an area’s needs, Butzow said.
• Increased fees at the county landfill could help cover the costs of stormwater improvements.

County leaders consider stormwater fee after hurricane flooding

Last year’s hurricane season resulted in hundreds of flooded homes and millions of dollars in damages, both inland and along the coast. In the aftermath, residents urged county leaders to take action to prevent future flooding.

Earlier this year, county staff gave an extensive report on options to upgrade the county’s stormwater infrastructure.

“There is certainly room for an improvement,” Tom Gerstenberger, the county’s stormwater manager, said at the time.

One of the options recommended by staff was implementing a stormwater fee to create a dedicated funding source for maintenance and upgrades.

At the recent workshop, staff highlighted some flood prevention measures that a stormwater fee could help fund, such as more frequent cleaning of canals that can become clogged and cause overflows.

Butzow displayed data showing that many of the county’s stormwater systems are under-maintained due to a lack of department resources.

On average, staff cleans less than 10% of the county’s canals, ditches and pipes per year, according to data from 2021 to 2024. At that rate, it can be longer than 20 years between cleanings for canals and ditches and more than 16 years for pipes.

“They are not, ideally, where we would like to be, absolutely,” Butzow said. “And it gets interrupted dramatically each year, depending on how much follow-up storm work you do. You may end up falling farther behind.”

Why stormwater fee failed in the past

County officials considered creating a similar fee in 2019, but the effort failed after opposition from some residents. At the time, some residents argued that the fee was unfair to rural homeowners because it didn’t account for acreage. Some also felt that developers and the county should bear the full responsibility for stormwater upgrades.

Carol Ann Felts, who is now commissioner for District 1, was among residents who opposed the fee back in 2019. But Felts said she would consider supporting the idea if the fee were calculated differently.

However, Felts said that if officials are going to ask taxpayers to help fund stormwater improvements, they also need to make sure that the county and developers contribute their fair share.

“You’re building up, it’s flooding people below that area. Because we had so much (development) for so long that was uncontrolled, unfettered. This has got to be a shared responsibility,” Felts said.

Commissioner George Kruse said he anticipates some pushback on stormwater fees but argued that funding flooding fixes is essential.

“I care about not having people get flooded out again. I care about fixing a problem that has been a known problem for years. We made the mistake of listening to the small minority of loud crowd back in 2019, which in part caused the problems in 2024,” said Kruse, who was first elected to office in 2020.

Commissioner Tal Siddique also supported the fee, but said the county needs a detailed plan for how the funds will be spent.

“My thought is we should start small,” Siddique said. “We’re not going to cover everything, and (we should) accept that that’s OK. We have to start somewhere.”

Commission considers new fee for developers

Commissioners are also discussing ways to charge developers more for infrastructure improvements. County staff and independent reports have pointed to Manatee County’s development boom as a contributing factor in flooding.

For starters, county officials are in the process of seeking higher impact fees from developers. The fees are paid by builders to fund new infrastructure like roads, sewer, emergency services and other demands created by population growth. But they can’t be used for routine maintenance, like canal cleaning, or replacing existing infrastructure, like old pipes.

Commissioner Kruse floated the idea of a separate fee that could be charged to builders based on how much impervious surface a new development has. Sarasota County has a similar fee, Kruse noted.

“There’s one way you can start getting some fees, is starting to charge people for doing development the wrong way when for a couple extra bucks, they could do it the right way and it has a meaningful impact on the community,” Kruse said.

What happens next?

Staff said they will use the board’s feedback to come up with better-defined options for a stormwater fee, which commissioners will consider at a future date.

A final plan for a stormwater fee has not been determined. If approved, it could take 6 to 18 months before the county starts collecting the fees depending on which option the board chooses.