Bontia delays decision on controversial tax

"I'd rather put it off a year and make sure we've done a good job disseminating information and collecting comments instead of rushing forward with something and having it get shot down," City Manager Gary Price said.

City officials proposed creating a stormwater utility in 2001. Later that year, the City Council appointed a seven-member panel of residents and hired the engineering firm of Hartman and Associates to determine what areas need replumbing and how to pay for those projects.

Hartman and Associates responded last December with a stormwater master plan that called for nearly $4 million in fixes to 13 areas wracked with water woes. The firm's report suggested charging residents an average of $4 a month, or $48 a year. Called either a "service fee" or a "tax" depending on whom you talk to, the expense would show up on residents' annual property tax bills.

"It gives you a revenue that's earmarked every year for stormwater drainage projects," said Pat Jennings, Bonita Springs Utilities' director of engineering and a member of the city's Stormwater Utility Advisory Committee.

The planning process has crept at a slow but thoughtful pace, officials say.

One of the biggest challenges: figuring out how much each property owner should be charged. The stormwater committee has said the tax should be based on how much storm water someone's property contributes to the city's drainage system.

Some contribute more -- say, a strip mall with a roof and parking lot roughly the size of an aircraft carrier. And some contribute less -- a farm with a small storage shed, for instance. Accommodating both extremes under one taxing system hasn't been easy, officials say.

"You can't physically go to everyone's piece of property and measure their impervious cover," Price said.

It's up to the Stormwater Utility Advisory Committee to digest Hartman and Associates' proposals and to convince the public of the utility's merits. But the committee meets infrequently. So far, it has met four times this year and no more meetings are scheduled until 2004.

"I think the basic progress is going well," said committee member Bob McGrath. "We're going to have to do it right if we're going to do it. We have to let the people know about it if they are going to have to pay a fee."

Persuading people to dip into their wallets for drainage improvements has been easier said than done in Lee County. In 1990, the county's attempt to create a stormwater utility failed because of widespread objections to the suggested $36-a-year tax.

"I just think it's another layer of bureaucracy, another candy bar for the people who take care of us," said Byron Liles, a longtime Bonita resident and critic of stormwater proposal. "Flood control has been a catchphrase here for 70 years. But they haven't controlled the flooding."

The City Council has the last say-so on the fate of the proposed utility and the tax that would feed it. If city leaders feel they need public guidance, they can put the tax up to a citywide referendum, Price noted.

Had council members agreed to pass a resolution by the end of this year creating a utility tax, the line item could have appeared on residents' annual tax bills as early as 2004, Price said. The city manager hopes the city can pass the tax next year.

Contact Staff Writer Jeremy Cox at 213-6041 or jgcox@naplesnews.com