By Marvin G. Cortner
Editor

Osceola County voters Nov. 2 will decide whether to authorize the county to collect a 1 percent sales tax to fund road and bridge construction.

County commissioners Monday voted 4-1 to put the measure on the ballot. If approved by a simple majority, the tax – officially called a charter county transportation system surtax – would take the county’s overall sales tax to 8 percent, one of the highest in the state. The surtax would remain in effect until the end of 2025.

“Let voters decide,” Commission Chairman Fred Hawkins Jr. said before the vote on the measure. “If it passes, it would be great for the county, but if voters reject it, then they have given us direction.”

Hawkins also said he likes the fact that 20 to 22 percent of the tax would be generated from tourists or others visiting the county.

County Manager Don Fisher said the county could put $430 million worth of road projects “on the street” over the life of the tax, using it to finance bonds. The surtax revenue, according to a resolution relating to the referendum, could not be used for mass transit, such as Lynx or SunRail. The money also could not fund county road department operations or road maintenance.

Commissioner John Quiñones was the lone dissenting vote on the issue.

“There isn’t enough time to vet this; other counties have taken two or three years to engage the community,” Quiñones said. “I think we are rushing this and it is going to fail.”

Quiñones also said adding a sales tax after voting to tentatively raise the county’s property tax rate – if both changes were implemented – would put the county at a competitive disadvantage in the region and ultimately result in fewer jobs created locally.

Commissioner Brandon Arrington said contracts for projects funded by the surtax would require a 75 percent local vendor participation and that a dedicated funding source for transportation is overdue.

“We’ve always been behind on our infrastructure; it (the surtax) would allow us to get ahead of the curve,” Arrington said. “In 1996, we already were talking about dedicated funding for transportation in Central Florida. What are we waiting for?”

Arrington added that without an adequate transportation system, the county could not easily recruit businesses. He also said the county has the ability to establish an expressway authority but there is no funding source in place to build any toll roads.

Commissioner Michael Harford, while he voted to send the surtax question to voters, said not including mass transit support is a mistake.

“To not invest in mass transit at the same time as roads is a mistake,” Harford said, adding that now is a good time to build roads because the cost of land for right of way has gone down as has construction costs.

County staff reported that all road projects currently ongoing would be completed in mid-2012 and that no additional work is anticipated at this time, given budget shortfalls and very few, if any, transportation impact fees coming into county coffers.

The surtax would fund a number of road projects, including: Osceola Parkway phase 2; Poinciana Parkway phase 3; Neptune Road phase 2; Hoagland Boulevard phases 2 and 3; Old Canoe Creek Road; Boggy Creek Road phases 1 and 2; Shady Lane extension; Osceola Parkway extension; Thacker Avenue; Bill Beck Boulevard extension; and Buenaventura Boulevard extension.

The county, by interlocal agreement, could share the revenue with the cities of Kissimmee and St. Cloud or a county expressway authority. A 1 percent tax could generate more than $35 million annually, according to county documents. Only two county governments in Florida – Miami-Dade and Duval – now collect this surtax and the amount is 0.5 percent in both cases.

The county already has a 1 percent local government infrastructure surtax, which is shared with the two cities and the Osceola County School District. The county gets about 54 percent of the revenue from this tax, or about $19.1 million annually. A transportation surtax would not be shared with the School District.