VERO BEACH — The City Council approved the long-discussed storm water tax Tuesday, but not before slashing the amount property owners will pay by some 90%.
After a heated, three-hour public discussion about the financial burden it could put on residents and businesses, the City Council compromised by setting aside COVID-19 relief money to fund most of the $1.1 million plan. At least for now. The amended plan was approved in a 3-2 vote, with Bob McCabe and Honey Minuse dissenting.
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Money from the tax — and now the infusion of federal funds — is to be used to help clean and maintain the Indian River Lagoon.
The tax will begin Oct. 1, and property owners will see it on tax bills in November.
“We’ll establish it, we’ll fund it and then we’ll work this year to make it more fair,” said Councilman John Cotugno. “Our objective is to try to clean the lagoon.”
Until the massive change was made Tuesday, the average household would have paid about $75 a year, but the council’s action cut that to about $7, City Manager Monte Falls said.
The exact amount each property owner pays will be determined by the amount of impervious surfaces — those that don’t absorb water — on their property. The estimated $7 fee is for a property of about 4,000 square feet.
That estimate includes driveways, patios and roofs, not just the size of the house, Falls said.
Under the council’s original plan, residential property owners would have paid between $30 a year for a 1,300-square-foot home to as much as $239 for a home larger than 6,500 square feet. The owner of an average-size home would have paid about $75, officials had said.
The rest of the money for water-quality improvements — about $900,000 — now will come from the American Rescue Plan, a federal COVID-19 relief package.
Despite voting yes on the reduced tax, Mayor Robbie Brackett said he still had reservations, even with most of the money now coming from the federal government.
But the new plan was better than forcing property owners to cover all the costs, he said.
“People are hurting out there right now,” he said. “I own a lot of property — I can afford to pay this — but a lot of people can’t.”
Environmental advocates, some of whom feared the city would table the efforts to improve water quality and “kick the can down the road,” were happy with the compromise.
“I think it’s important for property owners and business owners to have skin in the game,” said Keith Drewett, Clean Water Coalition of Indian River County board member. “But I’m very pleased the [effort] has been fully funded.”
Storm water money will go toward a new street sweeper and other water-quality projects that will be determined through a master plan developed later, Falls said.
After a year, the storm water tax will be reassessed, he said, but any increases for property owners won’t exceed the fees that were proposed in the initial plan. That protection was part of the compromise Tuesday.
Thomas Weber is TCPalm’s watchdog reporter for Indian River County. You can reach him at thomas.weber@tcpalm.com or 813-545-9113. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
