Tax to improve parks? Marco to weigh ballot question

Marco Island voters will get a preview of a new park tax they might be asked to approve this fall at today's City Council meeting.

They will hear the council discuss a property tax for park improvements that would raise revenue that also would be exempt from the city's spending cap.

The council will meet at 6 p.m. at Mackle Park Community Center.

The proposed ordinance would schedule a referendum for Nov. 7 and set the maximum property tax for parks at 50 cents per $1,000 of taxable property value.

A city staff report notes that a property tax of 10 cents per $1,000 in taxable property value would generate $1.18 million ($1,187,500). If voters approve a maximum park tax of 50 cents per $1,000 in property value, that rate would produce almost $6 million for park improvements in fiscal 2007.

A majority of council members said during recent capital improvements workshops that they approve of allowing voters to decide on the tax because park improvements often get pushed to the back-burner for other capital priorities.

The voters will have to approve the exemption of revenues generated by the tax from the city's spending cap.

Marco Island is the only city in Florida that is subject to its own law that limits annual increases to general operational expenditures to 3 percent plus the then-current federal COLA (cost of living adjustment). In fiscal 2007, the COLA is 4.1 percent.

City staff notes in its report that the proposed referendum ordinance does not include general obligation bonds, which also requires voter approval.

General obligation bonds would enable the city to complete park improvements sooner. Debt service payments could be spread over 15 or more years, the staff report states.

Capital improvements scheduled in the city's park master plan total $31 million. If all the park improvements in the plan are paid for by a bond issue over the next five years, the annual debt service will be $3 million. The park property tax rate needed to pay off the $3 million is 26 cents per $1,000 in taxable property value.

The owner of a property with a taxable value of $350,000 would pay a park tax of $91 with a tax rate of 26 cents, the report said.

The council could choose to keep the city's general property tax rate of $1.39 (1.3875) per $1,000 taxable property value in place, and use surplus revenues to pay off the debt service of $3 million per year in a 15-year bond issue for $31 million.

That option would prevent the city from adhering to other financial policies and would require a referendum so voters could grant an exemption to the spending cap for use of the surplus revenues, the report states.