The rubber meets the road

Tomorrow will be a very interesting day at the BOCC.

Big things on the agenda include regular BOCC items like bids, proclamations and all of that. Special for this meeting: Pirate's Cove contract and the sales tax, with the sales tax being on most people's minds

The goal for Pirate's Cove is for the board to approve the contract at a purchase price of $1,176,250.00. This would be contingent on the county getting private donations of $300k to be able to close on it. If I remember correctly, the money from park impact fees would be used to make this purchase, plus the private donations.

The board has come this far, I don't see them stopping this now. I assume that Commissioner Kinnard has heard the sellers would accept this offer, which is why it is coming back now.

The big thing Tuesday will be sales tax. I expect an interesting discussion.

The BOCC has the Chamber of Commerce results. I sent them the results of my survey. So they have SOME data, but I would argue not nearly enough.

Let's chat about it.

I am still of the opinion that we need to tap the brakes a bit on this. I want to see more community involvement. The Chronicle posted about it over the weekend and the comments blew up. Over 165 of them as of this writing.

Can you guess what most of those comments say? Most are against it.

Now I get it, the most vocal people are largely the unhappiest about government. Those who support it tend to be silent. So take that with a grain of salt.

But it shows a trend. The Chamber survey showed 30% did not approve. Mine showed 45% did not approve, but that falls within the margin of error. So which is it? Which is an accurate representation of the Citrus County voter? If either of these surveys missed that, then who knows which way it goes.... I would lean towards rejection more than approval at this point.

Many of those comments on the Chronicle page said they knew nothing about a survey or workshops or anything. That is a problem. Granted, no way all 115k voters come out to something like this to ask questions, but we can certainly do better than the 160 or so that came to the Chamber events.

So which is it? Which survey is "right"? Do we even know or are we just guessing at this point?

THAT is the problem.

We get one shot at doing this. If it fails, it is done for awhile at the very least. As others have said, we have never really done this in an organized effort before... SO WHY THE RUSH?

Why not have a discussion tomorrow.. See what the commissioners say.. see which way they are leaning on things like duration, specific projects, purposes, etc.

Then take that information back to the public... "Hey, here is what the BOCC said about this, what do you think"? Have more community involvement. If the community is not behind what the BOCC discussed, well then time for a new plan or scrap it completely.

As it is, we do not truly know if there is support for it out there. We have an idea there is some support, but not enough data to see where that support ends.

The deadline to do all this is May. Why do we need to do this in October, then final vote in November on ballot language... and then let it sit out there for a year before Nov 2026 vote? Does not seem like the best option.

One thing often missed in these conversations... many voters vote "no" on amendments like this out of principle. If they don't know what it is, they will vote against it. If it raises taxes, they will vote against it.

This is going to appear on a ballot that will also likely include some type of change in property taxes. That will drive more people out who are anti-tax... and now asking them to vote for a sales tax when they were not part of the process on the same ballot? EEEK.

Easy fail.

I would rather see a discussion and then the Chamber or whoever (North Florida Land Trust?) take the reigns from there for a public education tour so to speak to get feedback on that specific proposal... or ideally.. BOCC backs off the specifics and lets that entity facilitate it all and show data of where support is.

More information is never a bad thing... and going this route will allow the BOCC to show that they are valuing the input from the citizens and not just ramming this through.

We have time to do this right.... and we need to do this right. We shall see.

Come out to the BOCC meeting tomorrow and let them know your thoughts. They will certainly love to hear from you!