BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — Bradford County is advertising a special meeting to present its proposal to collect a franchise fee from Clay Electric Cooperative members and receive public feedback.
Having raised property taxes to a full 10 mills this year, county commissioners are exploring other ways to raise revenue to fund public services, in particular Bradford County Fire Rescue.
A franchise fee of 1% to 6% could be added to electrical bills of unincorporated Florida Power & Light and Clay Electric customers with the consent of those utilities. FPL has expressed its willingness. Clay Electric wants the hear what its customers have to say.
Franchise fees are a way of paying the county/taxpayers back for any cost incurred for the use of public right of way. In reality, the county would use the revenue to offset the cost of public services. The revenue could also lower the amount of annual special assessments that could be approved to pay for fire rescue.
The fees are already collected in Starke and other local municipalities to fund city governments.
According to a letter Clay Electric sent to its members, they would pay on average an additional $4.26 a month, or $51.12, a year, if the fee negotiated was 3% of their bills. Of course, the higher the bill, the higher the additional fee. The co-op estimates the county would raise approximately $344,000 a year from the fee.
Clay Electric will have members present at the special meeting to determine members’ opinions of the proposed franchise fee.
When a franchise fee was proposed in 2000, Clay Electric sponsored a telephone survey of 250 of its members. Sixty-six percent expressed they were strongly opposed, and only 8% were fully or somewhat supportive of the fee.
An even smaller percentage supported a special tax assessment. Others said the county should find another method of raising revenue, while 32% said there should be no additional tax of any kind.
When the co-op could not be convinced to negotiate in 2000, the county considered suing for the revenue, but a split commission decided not to pursue the costly lawsuit.
It remains to be seen how things will go 22 years later, but Bradford County plans on releasing its own information regarding the proposed franchise fee and how the revenue would be used, and then follow up on that at the commission’s special board meeting.
The special board meeting will take place Thursday, Feb. 24, at 6:30 p.m. in the county commission meeting chambers at the Bradford County Courthouse (north wing).
