Raiding tourism fund won't solve the Indian River Lagoon issue | Opinion
The current Indian River lagoon condition took over 50 years to reach this point. In 2016, Brevard County voters passed a half-penny sales tax increase to assist in cleanup efforts. This tax is expected to generate $340 million over 10 years.
That sounds like a lot of money. But based upon the cost of recent storm water projects, county officials estimate it would cost $1,000 per pound of nitrogen removed — or $1.39 billion — for municipalities along the lagoon to eliminate the 1.39 million pounds the Environmental Protection Agency and the state propose over 15 years from northern Volusia County to the Jupiter Inlet in Palm Beach County.
The cost to cure all of the storm water and sewer plant upgrades will require state and federal funding and I encourage residents to write to their elected officials to support these efforts.
Some state and county officials have called for redirecting some of the Brevard County hotel bed tax funds for infrastructure projects. In simple math this does not come close to solving the lagoon problem.
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The bed tax generated $13.6 million last year and these funds are used for promotion of tourism and capital projects related to tourism. Raiding this fund doesn’t solve the gap between the estimated $1.39 billion dollar cost to cure the lagoon. In addition, it will actually hurt the half-penny sales tax fund used for the lagoon as approximately 25 percent of the collected sales taxes are from tourists. Tourist spending equals approximately $10 million in sales tax proceeds. This doesn’t make any economic sense.
We still need to find the exact cause of increased nitrogen in the lagoon. Studies indicate a very direct correlation to human waste as research by Dr. Brian LaPointe at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University points to evidence of sewage-driven eutrophication and harmful algal blooms. We have our very own Dr. Duane DeFreese, director of the Indian River Lagoon Council and fellow waterman and surfer, working in conjunction with Florida Tech and others to solve this problem.
If we desire to solve the problem, let’s look at long-term funding by allocating actual dollar amounts needed to cure the problem.
Brevard County's state Sen. Debbie Mayfield filed Senate Bill 786, which would have annually allocated $50 million for certain projects related to Indian River Lagoon. The bill died in the Senate and a similar Florida House Bill 339 filed by Rep. Gayle Harrell also failed in committee. These bills would have been a start to bridging the estimated $1.39 billion cost to cure. Local cities must look at sewer and wastewater fees to ensure the costs for these services are sufficient to upgrade their plants.
Brevard County taxpayers have stepped up and passed sales tax to help the lagoon. I encourage all the other impacted counties to pass similar measures to solve the problem. Going after the tourism bed tax, which is a vital economic engine in Florida, will not fix the problem. If anything, I would suggest considering an additional penny of tourism bed tax to be set aside for specific infrastructure, beach, safety and capital projects. This potentially generates $3.2 million per year and frees up some funds from county and cities’operating budgets to deal with deferred infrastructure projects.
Clean water has no party affiliation as it is a vital natural and economic interest for all of us. Even if you don’t care about the environment (as a surfer I absolutely do), one should care about the tax revenue generated by waterfront properties and the economic impact of boating, fishing and water recreation activities, which is estimated at over $3.7 billion, according to the EPA.
Ben Malik is the mayor of Cocoa Beach.