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There are always a number of issues under discussion on Marco Island that encourage discussion and engagement, and the issue of revenues to pay for needed city services is certainly important to all of us. This continuing discussion will raise a number of important issues for us as residents and citizens as we focus on how best to meet our needs as a city and as taxpayers.

In Florida and across the country local governments and schools are funded with property taxes as the primary source of income – property taxes are reliable, and although this is less accurate every day, to some extent property values have been an indicator of wealth or the “ability to pay.”

With the pressure to maintain quality services but to reduce property taxes Marco Island is looking at a great many ways to both reduce costs and to diversify revenues. In one such effort to find alternate revenues, City Council has asked a committee of residents to help oversee a study to evaluate the potential benefits of the city providing electric services on Marco Island, and to help determine whether this is an issue that deserves further consideration.

In addition to the potential for revenues to allow the reduction of property taxes, there are a number of good reasons to consider the option of buying the electric distribution system on Marco Island, including – at least in concept – the potential of lower electric rates for residents and businesses and consistent funding for streetlights and undergrounding of overhead lines. The rate for electricity on Marco Island is the same as the rate for service to other more rural areas, and there are reasonable unresolved questions about whether our residents and businesses subsidize the cost of service to these more remote areas of Lee and Collier counties.

This may be a quick issue and review – if the study indicates that there is no significant advantage to the city’s purchase of the electric utility, no further discussion is needed. On the other hand, the study could support the city’s purchase of the electric utility, and if so the city could proceed to a public referendum to authorize the city’s purchase of the electric utility (also referred to as municipalization). The City Council supports finding the answers to these and other questions, and the city will work with the committee of residents to help advise the City Council and the community on this issue.