Commissioners approve port improvement district

BRADENTON – A new district near Port Manatee will bring jobs to the area, county commissioners said last Tuesday.

At the County Commission meeting, members voted 7-0 to approve the new Port Manatee Improvement District and established the Port Manatee Improvement Trust Fund. The goal, they said, is to create an area where businesses can move in and good-paying jobs can be created.

Deputy County Attorney William Clague said he based the district on a Community Redevelopment Agency, to the point that some of the wording was the same.

Basically, he said, a baseline year of 2009 has been set, and with any increase in property values after that base year, the extra taxes will be programmed into the district and could go toward benefiting the port and its development.

”But the main value of it is really to the county as a funding tool,“ Clague said. ”It's a financing mechanism“ and not a land development regulation tool. So if the board decides to change its boundaries, it can do so, and the board can even terminate the district early if it's not working out as planned.

The district is governed by the County Commission and the county administrator and his staff will administer the district, he said. Because they're dealing with ad valorem tax proceeds, there are some basic fundamental laws that the operation of this district and decisions on how to spend money have to be vested in the County Commission.

The proceeds can be used:

1. To pay debt service to retire port's existing debt.

2. For economic development around the port. You can pay impact fees if a use is eligible, marketing – promotion of the business, so long as it is focused on economic development uses, fund county infrastructure or port infrastructure.

3. To issue new debt.

4. To pay administrative costs of the district.

5. To transfer money back into the general fund for any public purpose.

There's a 15-year sunset provision, so unless the district's term is extended, it will end on Sept. 30, 2024. If they were to use the fund to float bonds, though, they'd have to keep the district until the bondholders were paid, Clague said. Since it would take time for the money to build up, at first they're not going to be enough to support an issue, and in the meantime the money can be used to pay down debt.

The commissioners were positive about the idea of paying down debt but still interested in what else could be done with the money.

County Administrator Ed Hunzeker said the board could capture some of the money.

”But you have the flexibility, when you're doing your annual budget, to make the determination of just how you want to spend this money,“ he said.

Commissioner Larry Bustle wanted to know if they could buy land with it. Clague said yes, but Bustle asked why it wasn't explicitly stated. ”Don't you think it should specify that?“ he asked. ”It says everything except that.“

It would fall into what we've already defined, Clague replied. You can purchase it for capital projects, and you could purchase it for economic development projects. More likely, it would be in a right-of-way acquisition scenario, he said. But just buying land in and of itself would not be a legally appropriate use.

”It needs to have an economic development purpose or an infrastructure purpose,“ Clague said.

But, Bustle asked, ”What if there's a piece of land and there's no purpose for it now but you think there might be one in the future?“

”I'm not sure we could do that legally, unless we had a purpose for it,“ Clague said. ”There's got to be a valid public purpose behind the procurement.“

Tax abatements for growth

Bustle's other concern was over tax abatements and whether an authorizing ordinance was needed.

At present, Clague said, the only abatement available is what's done under the normal economic development program. The problem is that the county has to levy taxes in accordance with the law unless the state Legislature approves a program.

Bustle pointed out that CRAs can do tax abatement, but Clague noted that the district isn't under the CRA statute. They thought about establishing a CRA, but they could only have two so they would have had to roll it into a CRA they already had.

”It looked like it would be extremely difficult,“ Clague said.

Bustle said the tax abatements could help grow the area. ”I have to say tax abatement is a powerful tool if you're trying to entice someone to locate here,“ he said.

Clague agreed, but said it's not part of this project, though.

Hunzeker said that they would work with the County Attorney and find information on tax abatements.

Benefits to and from the port

The promise of the port has been that it will be a job engine for Manatee County, and this is a step in that direction, said port CEO David McDonald at the meeting.

”I think the direction that the county administrator, along with the county attorney's office, has made will greatly benefit the port and the port in turn will be able to benefit the county back,“ he said. ”The ultimate goal is to bring good-paying jobs back to Manatee County.“

The commissioners have dealt with land-use issues around the port recently and worked to set up areas like the Port Manatee Encouragement Zone and the North County Gateway Overlay, as well as road improvement projects, so potential businesses will see the benefit of locating at or near the port.

It's important to grab opportunities with port-area land now, McDonald said, before the area becomes too built up.

Lots of ports lost vision and allowed non-trade companies to crowd in around ports, he said. ”What you're taking here is a bold step in grabbing onto those future opportunities before they're lost forever. Once they're lost, once that's built up and once it's a downtown urban port, you've lost them forever.“

The public should see that the port's growth offers opportunities not just now, but well into the future, McDonald added.

Commissioner Ron Getman, the chairman of the Port Authority, was on board with that view.

”I think it's a general feeling of the board that we all want to do something positive for the port,“ he said. ”It's like going on a trip to Georgia. We all want to go there but we all want to go a different route to get there. We have different ideas to get where we're going, but we all want to do something good.“

Some might worry about taking on debt, Getman said, but that's part of doing business. He noted that

Galveston has what it calls a reinvestment district, conveying the message that money was going back into the port. ”I like that terminology,“ he said.

One concern Getman expressed was about what would happen if a company took money to locate in the area, promised to create jobs and then went under. He pointed to the recent incident with Dell Computer in North Carolina, which demanded and received huge incentives to locate a plant there and recently announced that it was laying off all the workers and closing the plant.

The question many people have in such a situation is whether the government can get its money back.

Clague said that because of bad bond deals in the past in Florida, there are some tough laws. Governments can pay businesses for their performance, he said.

”Is there a way to guarantee if they default on that if we would get our money back?“ Getman asked.

”You would have to go sue them to get your money back,“ Clague replied. ”That's why it's done as an annual payment. It's not usually done as a lump sum up front. Because if the performance ends, the payments stop.“

'An exciting day'

”This is a kind of an exciting day,“ said County Commissioner Joe McClash. ”When you look at what we previously did this morning, even though there was some comments with the planned development for Curiosity Creek. That was the hard part of making property available for port-related use.“

Money could be had for a business deal that could bring a company to the port.

”We're drawing a line in the sand,“ he said. ”We're saying from this day forward that we're serious about getting that business in the Port Manatee area for those port-related businesses.“