We need tax levy support from all

The news coming from the state on the funding for wastewater systems in Monroe County hasn’t been exactly refreshing.

County officials announced this week that the general feeling at the state level is that Monroe County shouldn’t count on outside money to be able to finish its last large wastewater system, the Cudjoe Regional.

That system, proposed to serve about 10,000 equivalent dwelling units (roughly equal to one single family home per EDU) at capacity, is slated to serve most property owners between Lower Sugarloaf Key and Big Pine Key. Property owners in remote areas within that region, such as Big Torch Key, parts of Sugarloaf, Cudjoe. Summerland, Little Torch, Big Pine and No Name Keys, will not be on the planned central system as it is currently drawn, but will instead be taken care of by the use of on-site systems.

And officials expect the system to cost roughly $150 million to build, if the construction starts before the economy starts improving and prices begin to rise again.

If the construction start is delayed four or five years, the final bill could climb as high as $400 million.

Four years ago, the state promised Monroe County that it would deliver $200 million in bond money to the county to help with the remaining systems. Thus far, the state Legislature hasn’t lived up to that promise, and current rumor is that it probably won’t in the foreseeable future.

But the state mandate requiring sewer treatment systems to be upgraded to Advanced Wastewater Treatment standards remains in place.

We have already received one extension from the original July 2010 deadline to a December 2015 deadline. That deadline could have been met if construction had started earlier this year.

Now, the deadline will come and go before the county can put the entire system in the ground.

It should be on the back of the state of Florida to contribute in some fashion to the construction of the county’s remaining systems.

Two years ago, county officials asked for the authority to ask local voters for an additional one-cent sales tax to finance construction. They were turned down by a no-new-tax state mentality.

Local officials have a plan of sorts. They plan to raise $50 million by assessing local property owners $5,700 per EDU. Local officials plan to ask voters for an extension of an existing one-cent sales tax at the November general election next year.

The existing tax is set to expire in 2018, but all of the money from that tax is already pledged to pay off debts incurred for other wastewater systems in other parts of Monroe County.

If voters approve the extension, county officials believe they can raise another $50 to $60 million over 15 years to pay off part of the debt they will incur for the Cudjoe Regional system.

The remaining $50 million we had hoped would come from the state, rather than from user fees on the local residents, which could result in a monthly sewer bill of nearly $100 monthly.

But residents in other areas of the county which have moved forward on completion of wastewater projects, several of which were paid wholly or partly by the soon-to-expire sales tax, have come out against an extension of the tax.

For the last two decades, Monroe County has been collecting the sales tax from every person who buys products in the Florida Keys. Some of that money went to Stock Island to complete that system, a lot went to Big Coppitt to complete that system, Baypoint was built using that money, and Key Largo got $20 million to jumpstart its system construction.

Now, voters in those same areas don’t want to return the favor to Lower Keys residents for the construction of the Cudjoe Regional.

Lower Keys property owners, residents and visitors have paid the extra penny for nearly two decades.

We’re aware that the money wasn’t always wisely spent by a former county commission, and that has left a bad taste in the mouth for many county voters.

But as an island chain joined to the mainland by a single road that everyone shares, we have always been forced to do on our own what larger areas, with more voters, have done with the help of the state. And this issue should be no different.

There is no way right now that Monroe County can come up with the money to pay for the Cudjoe Regional system without some solid funding.

The state needs to come through, although chances are it won’t. That leaves Lower Keys property owners to fend for themselves, and they need the help of those they have helped in the past.

None of us like taxes, but we’re already paying the one cent. The folks in the Lower Keys need the support to continue that one cent to avoid paying for the entire cost of the Cudjoe Regional. That’s something no other area of the Keys has been forced to do.

Approving the extension when it hits the ballot next November is the fair thing to do. We hope fairness wins out over the NIMBY or got-miner attitude currently on display.

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