Manatee school board, commission fail to reach consensus on sales tax referendum

PALMETTO -- Manatee County elected officials are split as to whether county government and the Manatee County School District should join forces in placing a proposed sales tax hike on the November ballot.

During a joint work session Tuesday afternoon, the Manatee County Commission and Manatee County School Board discussed the situation and heard from a number of residents -- the majority of whom were against the idea.

No consensus was reached during the two-hour long meeting at the Bradenton Area Convention Center, as the two entities have yet to even decide whether to pursue a sales tax referendum this fall.

The school board's existing half-cent sales tax, which was approved in 2002, sunsets in 2017 and a county Citizens Financial Structure Advisory Board has recommend

ed a separate half-cent sales tax to address the county's funding issues.

The county commission and school board did decide to continue the discussion at another joint meeting, possibly within the next 30 days and including input from the cities.

"I think we need to have another one sooner rather than later so that we can come to the right decision," school board member John Colon said.

Commissioner Betsy Benac said it was great the two boards were able to have Tuesday's discussion.

"We are not going to rush into anything," Benac said. "It's not a crisis. We are trying to figure out what is best for our community."

The school board decision to keep a caveat -- saying if the community voted to extend the existing half-cent sales tax, the school impact fee collection rate would drop back to 50 percent of the maximum allowed impact fees -- was at the forefront of the discussion.

Also driving the debate were the school district's previous financial difficulties and ensuing public mistrust of the district.

Commissioner Robin DiSabatino, one of the officials against the joint effort, said people don't understand why the impact fees and sales tax referendum were linked.

"Nobody is disputing the fact that we need money for the schools," she said. "Nobody is disputing that whatsoever. Nobody is disputing the fact that we need money for infrastructure, roads, sidewalks, streetlights. ... The only thing they are disputing is bundling it with taking money off the table for a certain section of the population. I just can't get my head around how that is even related. How does it even come about? Because we are afraid that the builders aren't going to support it?"

School board Chairwoman Karen Carpenter said the district has "moved past those issues in terms of credibility and cleaned up the house."

"We know that we have baggage, and we know that the county also has baggage," she said.

An oversight committee for the sales tax revenue could help in achieving true transparency, commission Chairwoman Vanessa Baugh said.

"We need people from the public that are on this committee to make sure that the monies coming in are spent in an appropriate fashion," Baugh said.

If the school board doesn't remove the caveat, then the county should go alone on its referendum, Manatee County resident Stuart Smith said.

"If you don't, combining the school tax referendum with the county referendum will kill both because it is a poison pill, this notion of giving the developers half off on impact fees," he said.

Manatee County resident Ed Goff echoed Smith.

"When we are giving away hundreds of millions of dollars, how could you ask for more money? It's not fair," Goff said. "There is a trust problem."

The meeting was taped for later TV airing. It was the commission's and school board's "first attempt to look at these issues that we have and to try to find solutions," Baugh said, adding mistakes have been made in the past.

"We need to move forward," she said. "We need to move this county forward. I, for one, don't want to hear what happened in 2002. I can't do anything about that. No one at this table can, but we can do something about 2016, 2017, '18 and forward, and I think that's what we need to concentrate on."

Claire Aronson, Manatee County reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7024. Follow her on Twitter @Claire_Aronson.

This story was originally published May 3, 2016 at 11:50 PM with the headline "Manatee school board, commission fail to reach consensus on sales tax referendum ."