Marco council puts hold on parks tax

Marco Island voters most likely won't have to decide this year whether to add a new property tax on themselves to pay for park improvements for the next 15 years.

The Marco Island City Council on Monday night debated a proposal to add a maximum property tax of 50 cents per $1,000 in taxable property value. The tax would be dedicated for capital improvements to parks, and would pay the debt service on bond issues that could pay for $31 million in park improvements.

Council Chairwoman Terri DiSciullo and Councilman Mike Minozzi began pushing for the new tax during recent capital improvements workshops. They found some support from Councilmen Ted Forcht and Rob Popoff, who was absent Monday.

The six members present Monday decided to postpone any further discussion and to schedule a workshop when summer has passed to take up the issue again.

Waiting past summer to consider the tax would likely end any chance for meeting time-frame requirements to place the issue on a referendum ballot in the November general election, City Manager Bill Moss noted.

Councilman Bill Trotter continued his campaign against the proposed tax because he opposed a tax that generates revenues that would not be subject to the city's spending cap, and Councilman Chuck Kiester joined Trotter's position.

Marco Island is the only city in Florida that has an ordinance that restricts annual spending to an increase of no more than 3 percent plus the average cost of living adjustment.

"By doing this, we are abdicating our fiduciary responsibility to manage within the spirit of the city charter and within the restrictions of the spending cap," Trotter said.

He also complained that no details have been presented on exactly what specific parks projects the dedicated tax would pay. "When we go to the voters with something like this ,we have to give them a detailed plan."

Kiester opposed using the ballot box every time the city finds that it needs capital improvements that might push the annual spending past the spending cap requirement.

"I don't agree with using referendums to run government," Kiester said. "What would we do if suddenly Tract K came up again and we had to buy it? We also have the Rose Marina that will be coming up shortly. I think it would be a sad day on Marco if the marina was converted to condos. But how many times can we go to a referendum to solve our problems?"

Minozzi didn't like certain aspects of the draft ordinance that would have created the referendum that Moss presented at Monday's meeting.

Cutting out the potential use of $1 million in annual surplus property tax revenues to reduce residents' costs of the septic tank replacement program was one. Abandoning the city's "zero net debt" policy of saving enough reserves to pay off city debt in 10 years was another.

"I do favor offering a referendum to the public to let the people decide," Minozzi said. "But if the council splits on this, that will drastically cut down the chances of this succeeding with the voters."