SUMMER 2 0 0 7 OnOn TheThe City Government A Quarterly Update From Your City Hall City Keeping Close Watch on Property Tax Debate Proposals could hit Cape Coral harder than most Florida communities The state Legislature in Tallahassee is recognizing what local governments have known for some time – the property tax system in Florida is broken. The Save Our Homes initiative is having the “unintended” consequences that some expertsCity predicted Government would occur – huge inequities in property taxes among property owners. Legislators in Tallahassee are discussing ways to address these inequities and fix the system. While the City agrees that this debate is long overdue, there is concern about how the proposals being discussed in Tallahassee could impact our city and the services we provide. Some elected state officials have criticized local Public safety accounts for 38 percent of the General Fund budget. governments and targeted these entities as the culprits for rising property taxes. That criticism seems a bit unfair considering the Legislature actually raised local property taxes by $500 million this year by shifting some of the HIGHLIGHTS state burden for school funding to local budgets (referred to as the Required Local Effort). These types of forced Page 5 ....................Cape Radio WQGU-AM expenditures without providing the necessary revenue Page 7 ....................Rainy Season Brings Standing Water to pay for them are commonly known as “unfunded mandates.” Page 8CITY .................... GOVERNMENTNative Plants Help with Water Conservation Up to this point, the proposals being floated in Page 10 ..................2007 Hurricane Season the property tax debate are a “one-size-fits-all” approach. This approach assumes that every community has the Page 14 ..................Cape Coral’s Flood Risk same population, same home values, same service needs, Page 17 ..................Projects Coming to the Cape same growth rate, and most importantly, the same revenue sources. Obviously, this is not the case. Page 18 ..................Cape is One of Florida’s Safest Cities Move The “General Fund” for cities and countiesM is ove Page 18 ..................Council Candidate Debates on CapeTV comprised of a variety of revenues, property taxes being one of the sources. Another source is a public service tax, Page 19 ..................Keep Watch for Potholes which most other Florida cities have in place to generate Page 20.................Jim Jeffers Park Opens additional revenues. Our city leaders have opted not Continued on Page 4 SUMMER 2 0 0 7 CITY OF CAPE CORAL COUNCIL MEMBERS District 1 District 2 District 3 District 4 Tom Hair Richard Stevens AJ Boyd Dolores Bertolini 239-574-0437 239-574-0437 239-574-0437 239-574-0437 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] District 5 District 6 District 7 Alex LePera Tim Day Chris Berardi 239-574-0437 239-574-0437 239-574-0437 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] CITY OF CAPE CORAL ADMINISTRATION City Attorney Assistant City Manager Economic Development Human Resources Police Department Dolores Menendez Carl Schwing Mike Jackson, Director Wayne Howard, Director Rob Petrovich, Chief Hector Rivera City Auditor Financial Services Information Technology Services Public Works Dona J. Newman City Clerk Mark Mason, Director John MacLean, Director Chuck Pavlos, Director Bonnie Potter City Manager Fire Services Parks and Recreation Editor/Public Information Director Terry Stewart Community Development Bill Van Helden, Chief Steve Pohlman, Director Connie Barron Norm Standerfer, Director On The Move is a quarterly newsletter produced by the City of Cape Coral for the citizens of the city. The publication is mailed as a courtesy to every household and business in the city. Comments or questions can be directed to the City Manager’s Office, P.O. Box 150027, Cape Coral, FL 33915-0027 or by e-mail to [email protected]. — 2 — SUMMER 2 0 0 7 MAYOR’S MESSAGE Thank you for reading this edition of our “On the Move” McAuliffe Elementary off Ceitus Parkway in NW Cape Coral, is Newsletter. Congratulations to all of our students who have fully accessible, and also boasts two tennis courts and four soccer finished another successful school year, and especially those high fields. We look forward to our residents enjoying our newest park school seniors who have completed their studies. We wish you the for many generations to come. best of luck! Finally, as we approach another budget season, your mayor and Speaking of luck, our city was very fortunate last year to have city council are working hard to curb spending and provide our no direct impact from tropical storms or hurricanes. June 1st is residents tax relief. I have proposed an ordinance that will place the official start of the season, so please make your emergency plan now. Before limits on our budget every year, which should lead to significant reductions in a storm threatens, have at least three days of supplies stored, such as drinking city millage into the future. I have also proposed we reduce our upcoming budget water, flashlights and batteries, and non-perishable food items. Please ensure millions below last year’s levels. Finally, there is another proposal that will be both you and your neighbors have planned adequately for prescriptions and other decided at referendum in the November election that will allow the Mayor to medical needs. If you operate a generator during a power outage, please be safe, have line-item veto authority over the budget. If all of the above proposals are and operate only in well-ventilated areas outside your home. Should a storm implemented, the Mayor and Council will have a variety of tools that will keep threaten, you can count on us to bring you constant updates from our Emergency spending down. Operations Center through Cape TV Channel 14 (Comcast cable) and through the media. If we recommend evacuation for your area, please do so at the Please watch for children at play while school is out, and I wish you all a earliest possible opportunity. Remember, the health and safety of your family is wonderful Summer. everyone’s top concern. The city was pleased to dedicate Jim Jeffers Park on June 2nd. As many Sincerely, of you know, Councilman Jeffers was an inspiration not only to those with disabilities, but everyone who knew him. This new park, located next to Christa CM'S MESSAGE During the current dry season, recorded as one of the worst and made recommendations for system improvements to our City since records were kept, we have heard a great deal of discussion and Council. All recommendations received approval and are underway complaints about water pressures in the City’s dual-water irrigation with several due for completion this summer. Developmental work system. Let me take a moment to provide some basic information on some of these projects goes back two years or more. that may shed a bit more light on this situation and assist you in Unfortunately, not all of our residents and businesses are as understanding the unique dynamics of the stress on the system during concerned as they should be about our environment and our water this record drought. Further, this will provide information about resources. Due to illegal watering, our system pumps upwards of what your City is doing to improve system capacity. 20 million gallons on non-watering days. This stresses the system, causing storage Our dual-water system uses treated wastewater coupled with water from our tanks to run dry and the pumps to go offline. Canals are stressed even more as a freshwater canals, when needed, to provide irrigation water for our residences and result of the excessive and illegal watering. When water levels drop to certain levels, businesses. The system is regarded as the single largest residential reuse water system the South Florida Water Management District prohibits pumping, and pumps are in the nation and is repeatedly mentioned as an important element in Cape Coral taken offline. The City can no longer add capacity or pressure to the system. The being a model for water resource conservation and management. more pumps we take offline, the more capacity and pressure is affected, thereby The system currently has two, 5 million gallon tanks to store treated wastewater worsening the low irrigation system pressures some have experienced. If our until it can be pumped into the irrigation system. This storage and reuse irrigation property owners would stop use of water during non-permitted times, we would almost eliminates the need to discharge treated wastewater into the Caloosahatchee notice dramatic differences in system pressures and far less stress on water reserves. River. Less than 5 percent of treated wastewater ever reaches the river, and this I encourage you to water only during allowable periods and conserve as much as only happens during the rainy season when irrigation usage is at its lowest. The possible during the difficult dry seasons. end result is no city of our size can claim as little impact on a river ecosystem as can Cape Coral. We are the largest city between Tampa and Miami with our estimated Thank you for your time. population at more than 165,000, and our ecological footprint from wastewater is negligible. As Cape Coral has expanded its water, sewer and irrigation systems, there is greater demand on the dual-water system. Staff recognized the increasing demands — 3 — SUMMER 2 0 0 7 Proposed Tax Solutions continued from page 1 Celebrate National Recreation to implement a public service tax. Our residents also enjoy some of the lowest and Parks Month in July franchise fees in the state compared to other cities. Because Cape Coral has fewer revenue sources than other cities, we have a greater reliance on property taxes for In recognition and celebration of “National Recreation and Parks Month,” the General Fund.