The semantics of a whole cent sales surtax referendum were on the collective mind of members of the Hernando County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC). The Hernando BOCC debated the language of a referendum question that would levy a one-cent sales surtax on certain items for a period of 29 years during their meeting late last month.
According to Florida statute, counties within the state may levy a one-cent discretionary sales surtax for no longer than 30 years that has been approved by voters in a referendum. If approved by the voters, the whole cent sales surtax will be levied beginning in 2025 through 2054, to be used by the County and shared with the City of Brooksville. Revenue derived from the sales surtax would be used to fund law enforcement projects, roadway/infrastructure improvements and public safety.
Proposed projects include improving pickup and drop off lanes for schools, road widening at County Line, Barclay, Cortez Oaks Boulevard and Anderson Snow Road, among others, improvements including upgrading the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) Operations Center, building Fire Station 16 and acquiring land and designing Fire Stations 17 and 18, among others.
Proposed projects also include workforce development programs to train residents for local jobs, including those in the technical and aeronautical industries.
According to Mayor Blake Bell, members of the Brooksville City Council heard a presentation about the referendum from Hernando County Administrator Jeff Rogers during their March 4 regular meeting. “It was informational,” Bell said. “It’s the County’s initiative.”
It was the 75 words, including 15 words in the header contained in the ballot question, that were most on the minds of BOCC commissioners when they met on Feb. 27.
According to Commissioner Steve Champion, getting the verbiage right was key to getting the referendum passed. “This is a big deal – a game changer for the County, it could even drastically lower the millage rate if this passes, and I want to make sure we put in there the things that the citizens are worried about – they’re thinking about law enforcement and roads,” Champion said. “We can’t make it too complicated – we have to pass this for the roads, we have to pass it for law enforcement.”
Commissioner John Allocco agreed. “Nobody likes the word ‘tax’ and we got to make the voters know that this is a better way for us to fund the necessities to make their lives better,” he said.
Allocco also suggested that the ballot question include language that specifically lets voters know that food, medicine and medical services are exempt from the sales surtax. “When you think about your senior citizens out here who are living on shoestring budgets – they don’t want to think that they are going to go to the store and thinking that they’re going to be paying an extra percent on all their groceries and on their medical services and on their prescriptions,” he sad. “The public ought to know what they are not gonna be paying.”
County Attorney Jon Jouben immediately nixed the inclusion. “The ballot question is not supposed to be an advocacy document,” he said.
The BOCC also grappled with including economic development into the body of the question but nixed that too on the grounds that voters might think that by passing the referendum, they would be endorsing more development for the county.
“They’re already upset about development in the county; they’re going to think (if they vote for this) there’s more development going on,” Champion said. “If you fix the roads and have the law enforcement, you’ll have economic development.”
Finally, the BOCC agreed that the referendum question should include a headline of no more than 15 words that says the proposed whole cent sales surtax is intended for use for “law enforcement, public safety, roadway/transportation improvements and job creation.”
Champion suggested that the body of the ballot question include bullet points for law enforcement, roadway/transportation improvements, public safety and job creation so that voters may avoid reading “a whole paragraph.” “People’s attention spans (are short),” he said.
So far, County officials are still hashing out the actual verbiage of the referendum. Dominique Holmes, public information Officer (PIO) for the Hernando County Government, said that the resolution related to the surtax will be on the BOCC’s agenda later this month. “We are anticipating for it to be on the next agenda for the March 26, 2024 meeting,” she said.
The referendum is slated to appear on the Nov. 5 general election ballot.
