Coral Springs, Fla., voters could be asked if they want to tax themselves to pay for $65 million in citywide improvements.
The cost would translate to a 46 cent tax for every $1,000 of assessed property. If approved, it will go before voters on the ballot on March 13. Among the proposed projects:
- Fire-station reconstruction.
- License plate readers to monitor cars coming and going in the city.
- Drainage in the city's Corporate Park area.
- Artificial turf in eight sports fields.
- A new pool at the aquatic center.
- A new 10,000-square-foot senior center.
- Road resurfacing.
The highest-priced item: $18.5 million for the Westside Municipal Complex on Northwest 121st Avenue. The site is used as the city's garage and storage for items such as batteries and sand for road repair. The plan is to turn the steel "shed" into a 50,000-square-foot building.
Not everybody is on board. Commissioner Larry Vignola said the move to ask voters to pay more comes on the heels of a property-tax increase that some residents might already find burdensome.
That increase is expected to net the city an additional $9.9 million. He said many of these citywide projects on the bond list should have been the focus of the tax increase in the first place.
"All of a sudden we're saying we need more," Vignola said. "That's very concerning to me."
Vice Mayor Dan Daley said he wants to give voters the chance to decide for themselves.
He said city leaders "yell at staff what we want to be addressed but we don't have the backbone to go to the voters."
Said Commissioner Lou Cimaglia: "Let's get it done. It's for the good of the city."
And if voters say no? City Manager Michael Goodrum warned leaders that the advantage to taking out general obligation bonds means a lower interest rate on the borrowed money, but some of the projects on the list need to be done. He said there could be another "raise" in the property tax.
"We'd have to come up with another scenario to make that happen," he said.
The last bond approved by Coral Springs voters was in 2014 for a $12.4 million public safety facilities bond to upgrade two fire stations, provide a permanent building for its popular Safety Town attraction and give extra work space to police investigators.
Catherine Givens, the city's budget director, said there are two additional bonds being paid back now by voters as well: 1998 bonds that covered enhancements to North Community Park and the construction of a gymnasium, and bonds from 2006 which financed public safety facilities and improvements at Mullins Park.
The newly proposed bond — which still needs the formal vote from the City Commission by next month — would be paid back over 20 years.
