Santa Rosa commissioners reject two proposed MSTUs, approve stormwater MSBU amid funding debate

Santa Rosa County commissioners on Thursday voted down two proposed municipal service taxing units (MSTUs) — one for public safety and another for roadway improvements — and unanimously approved a stormwater maintenance municipal service benefit unit (MSBU), after hours of discussion about funding tools, grant opportunities and the county's growing list of unfunded road projects.

The MSTU votes were part of a set of public hearings that county staff said were intended "to establish the tools for the toolbox, not to set the rates for them," a point County Administrator Brad emphasized when he opened the presentations. "We're not looking to get in rates," he told the board, adding that millage rates would be set later at the June 23 budget meeting.

The results were: the public-safety MSTU failed on a 3-2 roll call; the roadway-improvement MSTU failed on a 3-2 roll call; the stormwater maintenance MSBU passed unanimously.

Why it mattered: County staff and several commissioners said the measures were designed to provide transparency on the property tax bill and to create dedicated lines for services such as emergency medical services, lifeguards, stormwater maintenance and paved roadway projects. Opponents argued placing new taxing units on the property-tax notice could be misread by the public as a future tax increase and worried about legacy obligations for future boards.

County Administrator Brad said the proposed public-safety example (a reallocation scenario of 0.32 mills) would generate roughly…