Infrastructure Surtax: a community benefited

It’s been just over a year since revenues from the voter-approved half-cent sales tax for infrastructure improvements began flowing into Bay County and its municipalities’ coffers, fast-forwarding dozens of projects that would have otherwise taken years to fund and construct, if ever.

“The Bay County Chamber of Commerce took the lead in providing voters with the information they needed to make an informed decision, and those efforts are already paying off,” Bay County Chamber President/CEO Carol Roberts said. “I jokingly say that every time I’m stuck in traffic on a road improvement project I get a smile on my face, knowing that we took a leadership role in making this happen.” Roberts noted the infrastructure needs of the cities and county would not have been met without intervention. Before the tax, only property owners were paying for improvements; now everyone participates.

“The addition of the surtax ensures the cost of building and maintaining infrastructure is borne by everyone using it, including our visitors,” she said.

“The improvements are good for growth,” Bay County Commissioner, Robert Carroll, said. It can be witnessed by passersby at projects under construction throughout the county.”

“If we have good infrastructure, we can draw good businesses,” he said. “People notice when they’re considering moving a business to the area whether you’ve got good roads, good sewers – it makes growth easier to happen.”

Carroll was Chairman of the Bay County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors as well as a candidate for the Bay County Commission during the November 2016 election when the sales tax referendum passed by a margin of more

than 10 percent; it sunsets after 10 years if not reapproved by voters. A commission-appointed Citizens Oversight Committee is responsible for ensuring the tax dollars are spent appropriately, as does each municipality.

The tax is for use exclusively in Bay County to repair local roads, increase neighborhood safety through pedestrian paths and sidewalks to schools, reduce neighborhood flooding, and reduce traffic congestion.

The sales tax is estimated to generate roughly $21 million annually, to be split between the county and each of the seven cities by a formula based on population. For Unincorporated Bay County, that means an extra $12 million per year in surtax funds. Its passage also allowed the county to discontinue an annual $3 million transfer from the General Fund to pay for bare-bones road improvements and inversely cut property taxes by .25 mills this fiscal year.

But the benefit reaches well beyond an additional $12 million for the county, as the new revenue stream makes available many millions in extra grant funding that requires a local match – a luxury the county never had before the surtax.

Since collections began through the first quarter of FY2018, Bay County has collected just over $12 million in surtax funds and another approximately $14 million in matching funds.

“For the first time in my career, we’re able to match grants that in the past the county never had the revenue to match,” Bay County Public Works Director Keith Bryant said.

An example, Bryant said, is needed partnership with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to replace a one-lane wooden bridge at Scotts Ferry Road with a concrete structure projected to last 50 years or more. The coun-

ty’s contribution would be only 25 percent of the overall $3 million cost. Scotts Ferry was recently repaved and connects U.S. 231 and Calhoun County.

“Not only is it a deficient, obsolete structure,” Bryant said of the bridge built in 1942, “it’s downright dangerous having a one-lane wooden bridge in the middle of a paved two-lane roadway. In the past we never would’ve had the money to replace that.”

The tax has allowed the county and some of the cities to work together on high-profile projects that would have otherwise foundered, in some cases for years. Repaving Thomas Drive, constructing the second phase of the “Loop Road,” widening Jenks Avenue, and replacing the bridge at East Avenue are examples of partnership projects currently underway.

Bay County is currently in discussions with other municipalities, such as Lynn Haven, for future partnership options.

Thomas Drive

While it isn’t obvious to the casual observer, work is under way in earnest on a $4 million project to repave Thomas Drive between Bristol and Joan Avenues, thanks entirely to the availability of surtax funds. The pavement,” Bryant said, “is in fairly decent shape, but ill-placed underground utilities cause the ‘teeth jarring’ bumps in the road every few hundred feet. In some areas, years ago, utility pipes were drilled directly through stormwater pipes, causing the massive bumps in the roadway. We never knew how bad those pipes were until a couple of years ago when we robotically videoed the pipe system.”

Once Panama City Beach relocates the utilities away from the roadway, the county will fix the pipes and mill and resurface Thomas Drive. Bryant said the resurfacing component will be bid within the year.

“There’s a lot of underground stuff going on that the public doesn’t see,” he said. “We’ve got to do it right or we will be back in eight years with the same problems.”

Loop Road

The second phase of the Bay Parkway, also known as the Loop Road, is a collaborative effort between the county, Panama City Beach, and the St. Joe Company. The county has applied for state grants to help with the overall $9 million price tag. Both Panama City Beach and the county have agreed to contribute $3.5 million toward the project, with the hope that the state will kick in funding too. The St. Joe

Company donated right-of-way along the route that extends the current Loop Road from State Road 79 to Nautilus Drive.

The project is much needed, Bryant said. “PCB Parkway fails every summer. There’s not enough asphalt for the amount of traffic we have out there, and all the signal timing in the world is not going to correct that,” he said. “Some problems, only asphalt can fix.”

Panama City Beach Mayor Mike Thomas, formerly a threeterm Bay County Commissioner before being elected mayor, said both the Thomas Drive and Loop Road projects are great examples of how the cities and county should be working together.

“This is a project that will happen within a year and a half, now,” he said. “It would’ve been five to 10 years down the road but for the help of the surtax. This is another positive step, to me, in the growth of Panama City Beach, and it wasn’t possible without the cooperation between the county and the city.”

East Avenue Bridge

A project on the east side of the Hathaway Bridge that required city/county cooperation is the replacement of the East Avenue Bridge – an effort that will be critical to the operations of the Port of Panama City and Eastern Shipbuilding, and consequently, Bay County’s economy.

The County, City of Panama City, and the Port are splitting a required local 25-percent match to cover the state DOT’s overall $3.57 million cost of the failing bridge’s reconstruction.

The bridge will serve as a refreshed gateway to a planned port expansion and to Eastern Shipbuilding, where the company will construct $10.5 billion in vessels for the U.S. Coast Guard.

“The port is a huge economic engine for the city and county, and this is one way the city can participate, by helping rebuild the bridge,” Panama City Mayor Greg Brudnicki said.

Other projects »

» Bay County’s expansion of Jenks Avenue from Baldwin Road to State Road 390 is being funded via surtax and state DOT dollars to the tune of $7 million.

The county is replacing a failing bridge at County Road 2297, an $8 million project being funded by $789,000 in surtax money.

The county will construct with surtax funding a new road to connect County Road 2321 and State Road 390.

The roadway will help alleviate traffic at County Road 2321 and U.S. 231, an area that averages 25 accidents – many serious – annually.

A project is under way to rehabilitate the Deerpoint Dam Bridge, a structure Bryant says is the most important in Bay County, as it separates most of the county’s fresh drinking water source from the saltwater in the bay.

The county completed resurfacing on several roadways in the northern part of the county, including Silver Lake Road, Center Drive and Camelia Street, and is working on paving several other roadways, including Bertha Nelson, a dirt collector road that connects U.S. 231 to Titus Road.

For Roberts, the Chamber’s involvement was a no brainer: “If your Chamber of Commerce is not a convener, we’re not doing our jobs. Ultimately someone’s got to take a leadership role in bringing issues to light. You’ve just got to stand up for what’s right.”

Details about all infrastructure projects can be found at www.bayhalfcent.com, a website dedicated to providing the public with information about how the tax dollars are being spent.