Using a Health First progression allowance as a carrot, Brevard County Commissioner John Tobia is running for safe concessions from the Merritt Island Reprogression Agency to replace the way the company allocates budget to appropriations.
In the future, this redevelopment company would be obliged to allocate part of its budget to park and recreation, housing and infrastructure expenses, according to Tobia’s proposal. The rest of the expenditure would be reserved for administrative costs.
The distribution, as well as the procedures, are still unclear, but Tobia received approval from the County Commission on Tuesday to look into the possibility.
“I think it’s vital that we act, in the absence of MIRA that brings meaningful reform to a 10-year master plan,” Tobia said.
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His proposal is the culmination of a series of rapidly intensifying events that began when Tobia received approval from his colleagues for staff to redraw the regression company’s barriers to exclude Health First’s progression assignment at the July 19 commission meeting.
As its review continues, the contentious relationship between Tobia and MIRA has continued, and has spread to Tobia which seeks to dictate the agency’s spending priorities.
Community regression agencies are an available tool to inspire progress in degraded areas.
Tax entities such as the county are eligible for asset taxes.
However, for a regression company district, the maximum of the additional taxes collected due to further progression would belong to the regression company and would be shared among the other tax jurisdictions.
Much of the Health First progression site off National Highway 520 is reportedly owned by Health First, a nonprofit, and is not subject to asset taxes. However, other for-profit projects on the site would be subject to asset taxes, with cash tax going to MIRA, as the asset is in the district.
If the Health First assignment site is removed from the MIRA district, other tax authorities, in addition to the county, are eligible to collect taxes on the new development.
Tobia said the county would lose heaps of thousands of dollars if Health First remained in the MIRA district, money that can be used to fund housing projects that citizens desperately need.
To convince the other commissioners, Tobia obviously expressed his disgust with the redevelopment agency’s expenses, paying special attention to a signal that MIRA bought for about $21,000.
Convinced that redevelopment agencies needed to do more to address the affordable housing situation, Tobia obtained approval from the County Commission at its Aug. 16 assembly to write a letter to send to community redevelopment agencies, urging them to play a bigger role in addressing emerging space costs and rentals.
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The letter, dated Aug. 18, highlights how affordable housing is an important factor for the region. He cites a statistic from the Shimberg Center for Housing Studies, which mentions that “people earning less than 60% of the region’s median source of income cannot find affordable housing. “
He then continues, urging redevelopment agencies in this way: “We inspire them to this network crisis and make this investment a component of their reach. We look to the future to compare adjustments to your plan over the next 60 days. “
After obtaining funding from the County Commission for his two measures, Tobia used them as leverage in negotiations with MIRA, so that the commission could exert greater control over the redevelopment agency’s expenses.
MIRA board members then convened an assembly on Aug. 25 to address some of the issues raised in the letter.
Some had considerations about the directive contained in the letter, board member Wendy Ellis.
In order for MIRA not to continue in perpetuity or grow, MIRA Commissioners and Board members have agreed to restrict the agency’s responsibilities. Ellis believes this contradicts this agreement.
“It’s an extension of the scope, and that’s what I agreed not to do,” he said. “We agreed, and I accepted as president, that we would not expand the scope of our plan. “
Ellis also got involved in how the board would affect the organization’s other responsibilities.
Ultimately, council members asked MIRA to explore the option of integrating the county’s spending priorities into MIRA’s long-term plan.
However, that barely convinced Tobia to act at Tuesday’s county commission meeting, getting approval from the board of trustees to begin investigating how the county can force MIRA to allocate a portion of its budget to parks, affordable housing and infrastructure.
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“If MIRA doesn’t act, we have to act in its absence,” Tobia said. they and take over from us, if they’re not going to take this seriously or get rid of it with it. I don’t need to do that.
MIRA and board members attended the assembly and said they would work to conform to the County Commission’s directive.
“I think we’re already moving in that direction,” mira president Marcus Herman said. “We asked the staff to do the same as them. rewrite our plan.
The concern, however, is how the board will meet MIRA’s existing commitments.
“It’s going to be tough,” Herman said. I’ll try to have more conversations with the commissioners to make sure they understand how this brings us together. If they still think this is the way to go, we will take what they give us and make the most of it.
Ralph Chapoco is a political and government surveillance reporter. You can succeed in Chapoco in rchapoco@floridatoday. com and stick to it on Twitter @rchapoco.
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