MANATEE COUNTY – A citizens committee gave Manatee County high marks Tuesday for how it is allocating proceeds from a voter-approved sales tax.
Norm Luppino, the committee’s chairman, said the group conducted three meetings to review the sales tax expenditures as of the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
“Everything was in compliance,” Luppino said. “The books weren’t cooked.”
Commissioner Vanessa Baugh commended the committee volunteers for verifying that the expenditures are consistent with the county’s promises to the voters. “It’s very important that we are very transparent with this money,” she said.
In November 2016, 56.3 percent of the countywide electorate authorized a half-cent sales tax, which the county is to use for infrastructure needs that cannot be paid for with impact fees.
Impact fees are imposed on new construction to pay for roads, parks and other capital expenses required by the expanding population. Yet the county has other infrastructure needs, such as repaving roads and replacing beach restrooms or park playground equipment.
The county stated that 70.7 percent of the revenue would go toward transportation projects, 14.1 percent would be used for parks and other community facilities and 15.2 percent would be for public safety and law enforcement.
The county also published a lengthy list of specific projects in each category to be paid for with the tax revenues.
The half-cent on the dollar tax is expected to yield about $30 million annually, with about $5 million going to the county's six municipalities. The referendum called for the tax to expire in 15 years unless renewed by voters.
The County Commission assured the public it would appoint a citizens committee to verify that the tax revenues are spent as promised. Last April, 37 residents applied to serve on the seven-member Infrastructure Sales Tax Oversight Committee.
Aside from the oversight committee, the county’s spending of the sales tax revenues is subject to auditing by the Clerk of the Circuit Court’s Office.
In a related matter Tuesday, the commission unanimously decided to temporarily shift more than $5 million from the transportation sales tax fund to the parks and community facilities fund.
Financial Management Director Jan Brewer explained that money for costly road projects takes longer to accumulate before construction begins. Meanwhile, Parks and Natural Resources wants to proceed with several projects that are “shovel ready.”
From its share of future sales tax proceeds, Parks and Natural Resources is to reimburse the transportation fund – including whatever interest that fund would have received on the borrowed dollars.