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County To Consider Property Tax For Land Conservation

By Douglas Carman | Highlands Today

Published: May 29, 2008

SEBRING — A Lake Placid veterinarian's push for a new ballot initiative, which would create a new property tax to build a land acquisition fund, may reach the county commissioners next month.

Dr. Elton Gissindanner and his supporters convinced the Natural Resources Advisory Commission Wednesday to draft a bill that would create a tax of 0.2 mils, or $10 for a property valued at $100,000 after the $50,000 homestead exemptions are considered. If the county commissioners approve it, it could appear on the ballot in November.

Gissindanner said that 29 Florida counties had a conservation fund of some sort.
Polk County's program bought more than 12,000 acres so far.

Highlands County has a small amount of money to buy land that it collects from impact fees, though he argued that the larger fund could allow the county to preserve more of the scrub habitat in earnest.
Most of the lands being sought for conservation are along the Lake Wales Ridge's scrub habitat.

The NRAC commissioners decided to plug in the 0.2 millage rate for 20 years, which they expected to support a $20 million bond.

Gissindanner, a former North Miami mayor and Miami-Dade County state representative, thought this was the right time to push for the initiative despite the current economy. In fact, he argued that it would help stretch the fund's dollars.

"We're in a fantastic time in the cycle of the real estate market," he told the commission.
When asked if he thought it would be approved on the ballot, Gissindanner told Highlands Today Thursday that the tax was "reasonable" enough to do so.

"We believe that the timing is right because we just voted ourselves a tax break back in January," he said, referring to Amendment 1. With another property tax cut on the ballot in November, he thought people could fit his initiative in the budget.

County Planner Zane Thomas said the ballot initiative was still being drafted, and the county commissioners could vote on it by their June 9 or June 16 meeting.

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