At its September 10 meeting, the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s Peace River Basin Board adopted a fiscal year 2005 (FY2005) millage rate of 0.195 mills, which is the same as the current fiscal year.
The budget forFY 2005 is $10,194,810, which is a decrease of $5,839,024 from the approvedFY2004 budget. The decrease is due primarily to a reduction in Florida Forever funding for the Lake Hancock Outfall project, which was part of theFY 2004 budget.FY2005 will run from Oct. 1, 2004, through Sept. 30, 2005.
For the owner of a $100,000 home with a $25,000 homestead exemption, theFY2005Basin Board tax would be $14.63, or about $1.22 per month.
The Peace River Basin Board’sFY2005 budget includes Cooperative Funding projects. These projects are proposed by local governments, and are usually funded equally by the Basin Board and the local cooperator. One of the Peace River Basin Board’s Cooperative Funding projects is the Lake Parker Northwest Tributary Stormwater Retrofit in Polk County.
This project includes the design, permitting and construction of a stormwater treatment system in north Lakeland. The wetland treatment system will provide water quality treatment to surface water runoff flowing through a major channelized stream system that drains a 2,016-acre sub-basin in the Lake Parker watershed. Lake Parker is a 2,200-acre lake in an urbanized area. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection lists Lake Parker as an impaired water body, which means it has poor water quality. It is estimated that the addition of this wetland treatment area will reduce the total amount of nitrogen and phosphorous entering the lake by roughly 40 percent.
The total cost of this project is $402,175, with the Peace River Basin Board
contributing $202,175 inFY2005.
The Basin Board’s budget also includes $3,951,226 for Water
Supply and Resource Development. Water Supply and Resource
Development projects provide funding to projects to develop additional new sustainable water supplies. One of the Water Supply and Resource Development projects is the Facilitating Agricultural Resource Management Systems (FARMS) program.
TheFARMS program is a public/private partnership program designed to assist the agricultural communities in the Southern Water Use Caution Area (SWUCA). The goal is to help implement water conserving irrigation systems or other best management practices (BMPs) to reduce water usage and improve water quality.
FARMS is an agriculturalBMP cost-share reimbursement program. Projects developed for the program must include one or more of the following resource benefits: water quality improvement, reduce Floridan aquifer withdrawals, conserve, restore, or augment the area’s water resources and ecology. Applicants will be required to sign a 5- to 20-year contract to be approved for theFARMS program.
The total project budget over the last three years for the District is $6,453,039 with the Peace River Basin Board contributing $833,632 inFY 2005, of which $200,000 would be reimbursed by the state.
The District has eight regional Basin Boards that provide guidance for local programs that are specific to the watershed basins they protect. The District’s ninth basin, the Green Swamp, is administered by the Governing Board. Basin Boards work with local governments and other entities on water resource projects that have an impact in local communities. Basin Boards often provide partial funding for these projects in partnership with a local government or local cooperator. The Peace River Basin Board area includes Hardee, DeSoto, and portions of Polk, Highlands and Charlotte counties.
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 11 members of the District’s Governing Board that serves as the Board’s chair ex officio.
Two statutorily required public Truth In Millage (TRIM) hearings on the District’s total budget will be held in September. The first will be Sept. 21 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 finalTRIM hearing will be Sept. 28 at 5:01 p.m. at the District’s Bartow Service Office. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Governing Board will formally adopt the final millage rates and budgets. The public is welcome to attend these meetings to provide comment on the proposed budgets.