The report below was submitted by the Bay Crest Special Dependent Tax District to be included in the Bay Crest August Newsletter. Since many of you may have already seen the referendum on the vote by mail ballots that came out this week, we wanted to provide you with the information below as soon as possible.

Taxing District Article 7/8/24

The Future of the Tax District, Please Read!

Greeting Bay Crest residents,

We had a chance to catch up with the Tax District President, Dan Cope of Bay Crest Ln, here is a summary.

What’s going on with the tax district?

In the last year or so we have had to rethink the future of the Tax District and the service we provide. You may have noticed we stopped trimming the oleanders on frontage road and a few other cutbacks. This is because with rising costs we just don’t have it in the budget.

What’s Causing the Budget issue?

Simply put, inflation! Take the contract with LLand craftersas an example, they were the ones maintaining the common areas, oleanders on frontage, medians and updating the flowers at the entrances and more the last few years. The increases in their costs lead to them increasing the charge to us. It was slated to take over two thirds of our budget this year. We had to cancel that contract and go with one that only covers the basics.

What’s being done about it?

Before answering that question you need to understand a few things:

The District is capped at $100 per year for each residential property resulting in $93,600 if everyone pays their taxes…

Then there are the required fees we have no control over which leaves the District with about $75,000 annually to provide the services we do.

The Landcrafter’s contract was running about $4,000 a month ($48,000/year) and was slated to go up 10% the next year ($52,800). This is just to maintain the common areas.

Maintenance like sprinklers and the gate control systems we have no control over and have to pay as we go.

Just so it’s said the board is not paid, we volunteer our time for the neighborhood.

All said, we met with Commissioner Cohen to discuss just what we can do to be able to restore the services we provide and to remain solvent. The answer was also simple: we need to adjust the Tax Districts budget!?!?

But that is not as simply done as said. When the District was founded 20+ years ago they set the cap at $100. According to CPI.gov $100 in 2010 (this is when the county officially turned over ownership of the ramp) today would be $145. But the board, by itself, cannot exceed $100…

Then what?

We vote! In the primary to be specific, August 20, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. In order to preserve the Tax District for now and the future an amendment has been added to the primary ballot for voters residing in the area of the Tax District. It will change the governance of the district to raise to a new cap of $500 allowing the board to operate for many years to come with room in the cap. So get out there and vote!

A "Yes" vote will allow us to restore service in the fiscal year 2026, sorry 2025 is already budgeted and will remain as is. So the board will have to continue with the budget we have until then.

However a "No" vote would cripple the Tax District and more cutbacks will have to be made in coming years!

We estimate the board will not have enough funds to cover the basics within 5 years.

The decision is now in the hands of the people. We will vote to “Keep Bay Crest Beautiful” or let the tax district fade away until it is dissolved and the common areas including the boat ramp returned to the county?

***We, the board, also want to make clear:

The cap is not the new amount to be levied for next year after it is raised. We estimate we need to go to $125 to get back where we were when I, Dan, joined the board.

All budgets and budget raises have to be approved by the Board of County Commissioners and we are not allowed to just raise the amount without showing how we plan to spend it.

These budgets are drafted and voted on annually and sent to the BoCC for approval before the new tax amount is levied.

As Commissioner Cohen explained in the community meeting the BoCC would not allow a major increase without community support for the projects proposed.

Simply the new cap will suffice the needs of the community for, hopefully, decades to come….