BY TRACY LEE TATE
Times Staff Writer
LAKE BUTLER — Local governments across the state are suffering from the downturn in the economy as are most of their citizens. Counties must provide services to their citizens such as courts, public safety, roads, waste management and many services related to the government itself, including election administration, schools, and offices which support the functioning of the county (offices such as that of the property appraiser, clerk of court, tax collector and finance). Most of this is funded through the assessment of ad valorem taxes and other specific special assessments. Every year, county residents must pay their taxes on their homes and land as a matter of course, but not all the land in the county is subject to being taxed and in smaller counties that can create a problem.
Union County is the smallest county in the state in terms of land area and is third smallest in the state when population is considered (of course that is greatly affected by the large number of Department of Corrections inmates who are counted, as they technically “live” in the county – 33% of the county’s population). There are many homes in the county, but a significant percentage of the area is zoned for agricultural use (taxed at a lower rate), including lands used for raising livestock, growing crops and trees. Added to this are the various lands on which no tax is paid at all – including church property, property owned by charitable organizations, schools, properties owned by persons with certain disabilities and 100% disabled veterans and most cemeteries. Also exempt are all lands owned by the county itself, any municipalities in the county, the state of Florida and the Federal government. It is the state-owned properties that present the largest loss of ad valorem revenue for Union County, most notably the large tracts of land owned by the Florida Department of Corrections that serve to hold the prisons that call the county home.
In the original agreement between the county and FDOC, the county agreed to deed land owned by the county to the state to allow the construction of correctional institutions in exchange for inmate labor for local government needs. The agreement was that the county would have access to 49 inmates to be utilized in its work crews for such services as mowing and assisting the various departments such as solid waste and the road department. The idea was that the use of the inmates would reduce county expenses as they would be doing work that would otherwise require paid employees. Then work camps closed and vocational training was implemented for inmates and the number of inmates made available to the county was reduced by half (causing the county to remove two inmate supervisor positions).
Meanwhile, FDOC now owns 29 properties in Union County, with staff housing having been added as an employment incentive outside the scope of the agreement, which have a combined assessed value of a little under $68.1 million which, if taxed as other properties in the county, would produce estimated annual taxes of $1.15 million. Besides the large areas of land used for the Regional Medical Center and its work camp and West Unit and the Union Correctional Institution and its work camp, FDOC also provides a total of 247 housing units for correctional personnel, including 171 homes, 59 mobile homes and 16 apartments. The county with the next highest number of housing units provides only about 40 units. This means that the county and school district are missing out on about $320,000 in estimated annual ad valorem taxes. In addition, these properties pay no special assessments for emergency medical services, fire services, solid waste management or local law enforcement through the Union County Sheriff’s Office, but they still receive these services.
In the period from May 2021 to May 2022, UCSO responded to 197 calls for service from DOC property via 911 dispatch, EMS responded to 175 calls and fire services responded to two calls. Since response to 911 emergency calls in mandated by state law, these calls cost Union County taxpayers about $200,000 for the one-year period. In addition, Union taxpayers pay an estimated annual cost for waste management services for these properties of $16,598, mostly in tipping fees.
FDOC is the largest employer in Union County and provides jobs for many people in the surrounding area as well. Staff housing is provided at competitive rates to employees, but they still pay rent for the housing. FDOC collects this as revenue. The upside is that families can have an affordable place to live, and the institutions have a reserve of employees on-site should an emergency occur requiring people to be called in to work on short notice. The county, on the other hand, loses about $1.4 million per year due to the lack of ad valorem income and the cost to the county of the services it is required to provide. In a larger county such a financial hit might be easier to work around, but in a county the size of Union it is a serious matter.
County Coordinator Jimmy Williams is working to get the state legislature to provide the county with an annual Payment in Lieu of Taxes of $300,000 to help offset these expenses (made more critical due to the decrease in the number of inmates available for work crews – causing a payroll increase for work that still must be done). He has been working with state representatives to make and follow-up on the request and reports that the appropriation is in the state’s preliminary budget for the coming fiscal year currently.
Williams is also pursuing the full funding of an existing, recurring allocation designed to provide small counties with disproportionate impact from state prison facilities with funds. The money to earmarked to mitigate the economic impact large prison populations (7% of county population or more) have on the surrounding communities. Some areas in which counties may see these effects include road wear-and-tear, traffic issues (more accidents) and the aforementioned costs to the county for state mandated services.
The funding was originally based on the percentage of the population of the county made up of inmates. For Union County, according to the full formula approved by the legislature, should be receiving $289,632 annually but is only receiving $73,533 due to a reduction on the funding of this program and the addition of another paid from the appropriated funds. This is affecting all counties in the program, not just Union County.
Williams said the request was also included in the state’s preliminary budget for the coming fiscal year.
“The combination of the two funding sources will make up the difference in ad valorem income and the costs of services provided to the prisons at the taxpayer’s expense,” Williams said.
Williams is also working with FDOC to investigate the possibility of reinstating the original allotment of inmate labor and possibly re-opening a work-camp.
