When I became Chairman of the Leon County Board of County Commissioners in November, 1998, I pledged my leadership to extending the one-cent sales tax because we could simply not ignore the needs that we are facing as a community today and will continue to face in the future. "A penny for our future" seemed to me a small and equitable price to pay to ensure better transportation, the health and quality of our lakes and drinking water and improved law enforcement. I pledged to have the sales tax extension before the local electorate for them to decide if a penny is worth constructing needed transportation systems and improved arterial roadways, to ensure that these transportation systems that do not disregard the needs of our lakes and to protect and preserve our natural water bodies to ensure that they are not polluted by stormwater runoff, and to guard our homes and businesses from flood water. In addition, I said then and continue to support the Sheriff and other Commissioners who have rallied for the need for a joint emergency dispatch center to improve officer and citizen safety and believe that this constitutes the best of public investments.

It didn’t take long after first being elected to my at large seat on the Leon County Board of County Commissioners to realize that the growing pains that we have and will continue to experience pose a real threat to our quality of life here because of their potential to out pace our ability to mitigate them. In a county with over thirty percent of the property off the tax rolls, a big part of our ability to respond to our most critical community concerns has been through the one-cent sales tax approved by the voters in 1989. The sales tax, which is currently split with the City in a ratio of 52.84% to Leon County and 47.16% to the City of Tallahassee, will expire on November 30, 2004. This sales tax has and will continue to be used in accordance with the mandate of the voters which was to dedicate the proceeds of the sales tax to our communities most pressing transportation and law enforcement needs including building the court-ordered Leon County Jail.

Deliberation about extending the one cent sales tax beyond its 2004 expiration date has been ongoing between the City and the County since December, 1997. Very early on, the Board of County Commissioners expressed Leon County’s needs for extending the one-cent sales tax and our desire put the issue before the local electorate as a means of deciding not if but how to continue to ensure our quality of life and address the needs that our citizens are telling us are out there such as traffic, stormwater and others. The County has always been dedicated to moving together with the City on this initiative, however, the inability to reach consensus on several issues related to a referendum caused the commissions to be gridlocked.

To ensure that the voice of the community was heard on this issue, I supported the efforts of a citizen’s group composed a broad spectrum of neighborhood, community and business representatives to examine the need for a sales tax extension beyond 2004 and assist local government in developing an extension proposal. This group, which became known as the Economic and Environmental Consensus Committee (EECC), presented their findings to the joint County/City Commissions sitting as the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) on April 19, 1999. I can say with all confidence that this group exceeded everyone’s greatest expectations of a citizens group tasked with such an undertaking. The group presented their report which included many of this community’s most pressing needs and presented innovative ways of approaching particular community needs which take into account land use, transportation and watershed planning. This citizen involvement demonstrated by the EECC is absolutely vital for this community in preparing for 2000 and Beyond, the name of their report.

It is important to understand that to move forward as a community and face the challenges ahead of us requires not only great human effort but also significant financial resources. The current sales tax has provided this resource in the most equitable manner, not by passing the burden on to only those people in our community who pay property taxes, but by having all of those who live, work and visit our community contribute to its success.

Much has been said and written about a future sales tax extension, however, I want to assure the citizens of this county that my efforts and the efforts of the Leon County Board of County Commissioners has been to pull this community together on an effort that is absolutely critical to the future of this community. It is my intention to continue to work toward the goal of community concensus so that the citizens of Leon County can confidently and proudly vote yes to extend the existing one-cent sales tax.