Commissioners choose not to impose canal maintenance tax in 2025

Longboat Key residents will not see a new canal maintenance tax on the 2025 bill. 

After a workshop discussion at the town commission’s Jan. 21 meeting, the commission agreed not to impose any additional tax and directed staff to continue simplifying the non-ad valorem taxing methodology. 

“Certainly, any revenue collection is on hold,” Town Manager Howard Tipton said. “But we hope the program can continue to develop.” 

The canal maintenance program would dredge the town’s private and public canals and be funded by ad valorem and non-ad valorem taxes.

At the end of 2024, the town commission voted to approve an ad valorem mechanism to collect the revenue. But having that mechanism in place does not require the town to utilize it. 

A canal maintenance program has flowed in and out of town commission discussions for several years, but staff undertook a serious development of such a program about a year ago.

The project team and town consultants have been working to develop the non-ad valorem portion of the tax collection, which is not yet refined. This method could split up the town into six different taxing districts, as well as group canals based on use — direct benefit, general benefit and shared benefit. 

First Line Coastal, the town’s main consultant on the program, surveyed the town’s canals last year before the hurricanes and scored each one with a letter grade, A being the best and F being the worst. 

The surveys showed that 23% of the town’s canals were rated D or F, and those would get the dredge priority in the first round of dredging. 

Previous estimates showed that the all-in project cost to get the town’s canals back to baseline would be around $9.25 million, which includes environmental mitigation costs of about $3.6 million. 

Those costs were also adjusted to reflect estimates for 2028 pricing, which is likely when the dredging would start after collecting enough tax revenue to get the project started. 

Dredged-up discussion 

At the Jan. 21 workshop, the town consultants with First Line Coastal said the team is at the beginning stages of developing a dedicated website for the maintenance program where residents could input their information and receive an individual tax estimate. 

The consultants and Public Works Director Charlie Mopps also talked about one of the potential reasons to move on the canal program sooner rather than later: beneficial use of dredged material (BUDM). 

According to their presentation, sediment dredged from the canal maintenance program could be tested and used as fill for the subaqueous force main project. Construction for the subaqueous force main project is happening in 2025 and, if the town could use BUDM from the canals, it could mean cost savings for the subaqueous project. 

During the commission’s discussion, a common theme emerged — the need for simplification. 

“When you enter into something like this, the key should be simplicity,” Mayor Ken Schneier said. “It’s not always possible, but simplicity, fairness and, where you have a wheel, don’t reinvent the wheel.”

District 4 Commissioner Debra Williams continued to question the methodology, especially after seeing numbers emailed to commissioners that showed 42% of parcels in the town have direct access to canals, but 68% of the taxable value would come from properties without direct access. 

The workshop discussion continued to emphasize the need for a simpler and fairer method, with one suggestion being to split up the island by canal access and non-canal access. 

Either way, the discussion was still a ways away from reaching a consensus on the right way to move on a non-ad valorem tax. 

“We have to decide whether we want to solve this year, or punt to another commission,” said Vice Mayor Mike Haycock. 

Williams and Commissioner-At-Large BJ Bishop also agreed that now is not the right time to impose a new tax on residents. 

“I absolutely think we need to come up with a rate,” Bishop said. “But I will strongly discourage us from putting another tax bill in front of people who have lost their homes, who have significant damage to their homes.” 

Williams also re-emphasized the need for a simpler method, something that can be explained like an elevator pitch to their constituents. 

“If you can’t explain something in 30 seconds or less to somebody and get them hooked, you have a PR problem,” Williams said. “It’s not equitable to the people who don’t have canal properties.” 

After the nearly 90-minute discussion, commissioners reached a consensus to not collect any tax for the canal program in 2025 and allow town staff and consultants to refine the methodology toward something simpler.