At its June 12 meeting, the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s Coastal Rivers Basin Board adopted a proposed fiscal year 2009 (FY2009) millage rate of 0.1885 mill, which is the same as the current fiscal year. The Coastal Rivers Basin Board covers portions of Citrus, Hernando and Pasco counties.
This millage rate, combined with a reduction in taxable property values as estimated by the county property appraisers, will result in an estimated 12 percent decrease in ad valorem property tax revenue from FY2008. These estimates will be updated when the property appraisers release their certified taxable property values in July.
The proposed budget for FY2009 is $9,370,242, which is a decrease of $640,019 from the approved FY2008 budget. FY2009 will run from Oct. 1, 2008, through Sept. 30, 2009.
For the owner of a $125,000 home with a $50,000 homestead exemption, the FY2009 Basin Board tax would be $14.14, or about $1.18 per month.
The Coastal Rivers Basin Board’s FY2009 proposed budget includes funding for cooperative funding projects. These projects are proposed by local governments, and are usually equally funded by the Basin Board and the local cooperator.
One of the Coastal Rivers Basin Board’s cooperative funding projects is the New Port Richey Midwest/Northwest Reclaimed Water Distribution System, which will offer more residents in the city the opportunity to connect to reclaimed water.
The project includes the construction of approximately 26,800 feet of reclaimed water distribution lines in the neighborhoods north of Main Street and east of U.S. Highway 19.
This project will provide approximately 217,200 gallons per day (gpd) of reclaimed water for irrigation to approximately 483 homes and is expected to offset about 108,600 gpd of potable water.
This cooperatively funded effort is expected to cost $2.22 million over two years. The District’s Coastal Rivers Basin Board has tentatively budgeted $336,400 for FY2009.
Construction is scheduled to begin in August and is expected to be complete by December.
Reclaimed water is wastewater that has received at least secondary treatment and is used for a beneficial purpose, such as irrigation. By offsetting demand for ground water and surface water, this alternative, non-traditional water source reduces stress on environmental systems, provides economic benefits by delaying costly water system expansions, and eliminates the need to discharge wastewater effluent to surface waters.
The Basin Board’s proposed budget also includes $2.14 million for Water Supply and Resource Development program, which provides matching funds for the development of additional new sustainable water supplies.
One of the Water Supply and Resource Development projects in the proposed budget is the Pasco County Wet Weather Reclaimed Water Reservoir – Boyette project, which will supply up to 5,500 additional residential customers with reclaimed water.
This multi-year project involves constructing a reservoir on the old Swan Lake borrow pit property. The 140-acre parcel is located approximately one mile northeast of the Wesley Center Wastewater Treatment Facility. The reservoir will be built to store up to 600 million gallons of reclaimed water from the county’s reclaimed water system.
This project involves the design, permitting and construction of the reservoir. This project is expected to provide an average of 3.3 million gallons of water per day (mgd), which will offset approximately 1.65 mgd of potable water.
Because this project is part of a regional effort to increase the use of reclaimed water, the $18.55 million project will receive funding from the District’s Coastal Rivers, Hillsborough River and Pinellas-Anclote River Basin Boards and the District’s Governing Board. In FY2009, the Basin Boards and Governing Board are tentatively budgeting a combined $2.8 million; of this amount, $311,090 has been tentatively budgeted by the Coastal Rivers Basin Board. Funding for future fiscal years is contingent upon Basin Board approval.
Basin Board members are unpaid citizen volunteers appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate. They serve three-year staggered terms. Each of the Basin Boards includes a minimum of one person from each county within the basin, and there must be at least three members on each Board. Each Basin Board has at least one of the 13 members of the District’s Governing Board that serves as the Board’s chair ex officio.
The District’s Governing Board will adopt proposed millage rates for the District’s General Fund and the eight Basin Boards at its monthly meeting in July at the District’s Brooksville headquarters. These millage rates will be used by county property appraisers when mailing out Truth in Millage (TRIM) notices to residents. The Basin Boards will meet again in August to adopt their final millage rates and budgets.
Two statutorily required public TRIM hearings on the District’s total budget will be held in September. The first will be Sept. 16 at 5:01 p.m. at the District’s Tampa Service Office.
The Governor’s office will review and approve the budgets of all five water management districts before the second and final public hearing.
The District’s second and final TRIM hearing will be Sept. 30 at 5:01 p.m. at the District’s Brooksville headquarters. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Governing Board will formally adopt the final millage rates and budgets. The public is welcome to attend any Governing Board or Basin Board meetings to provide comment on the proposed budgets.