Robinson: County quietly plans a new tax

Public opinion on taxes and fees is pretty clear. On Aug. 30, Herald-Tribune reporter Zach Murdock reported on the 2017 Citizen’s Survey presentation by University of South Florida professor Dr. Susan MacManus:

“There’s not a lot of appetite for new revenue sources of any sort and there’s certainly not a lot of appetite for increasing taxes,” MacManus told the Sarasota County Commission recently.

“If anything, the message is: ‘Keep the taxes as they are (even) if you have to keep services as they are.’ There are a lot of differences of opinion, but you can clearly see that 61 percent don’t want anything that’s going to cost them more money.”

It will be tough for the county commissioners to look the public in the eye with straight faces and claim they did their best to do what the public has opined.

At their last budget workshop before the September public budget hearings, the commissioners did not entertain trying to restrain costs when given a list of cuts to increased budgets. The list they had contained not cuts to actual departments from the previous year, but cuts to increased spending.

Instead, the commissioners jumped right to pushing forward with a 5 percent Public Service Tax (PST).

The lack of transparency regarding this tax, the disproportionate application on “cost-burdened” households, the regressive nature of the tax, and the lack of information as to who and how it will affect our unincorporated citizens and businesses are alarming.

The County Commission could have raised additional revenue by increasing the property tax rate. In that case, the public would have been well aware of a tax increase: Every year, all property owners receive notices under the Truth in Millage Act. These TRIM notices are, according to the state, “designed to inform taxpayers which governmental entity is responsible for the taxes levied and the amount of tax liability owed to each taxing entity.”

This year, TRIM notices were mailed Aug. 18. If you looked closely on your statement, you saw your taxes generally go up because the value of properties increased. However, the county millage rate stayed the same.

Instead of raising the property-tax rate, the commissioners chose to propose a brand new tax, the PST, which is flying under the radars of most taxpayers.

You won’t receive a personal notice of this tax or personal notice of its public hearing. You won’t be able to tell exactly how much the tax will be for you ahead of time, and you won’t even see it on a future tax bill.

That is because it will be coming to you piecemeal on your electric, water, propane or natural gas bills. That’s right, a new tax and you will never see it until you have to pay it.

According to Sarasota County’s research on the Public Service Tax, only 12 of Florida’s 67 counties levy this tax. Out of the 12 that charge the PST, five do not levy for water.

Two counties charge less tax overall than what we have proposed in Sarasota County. Thus this, if passed, will make Sarasota County the 11th highest charge for county Public Service Taxes in the entire state.

Sarasota County frequently brags about its low and stable millage rate during budget workshops. I wonder if this ranking on the Public Service Tax will be the new source of pride and be frequently mentioned at future county budget workshops. Somehow, I don’t think it will get a mention.

Christine Robinson is executive director of The Argus Foundation and a former Sarasota County commissioner.