Order for a hearing to discuss offering property tax abatements to property owners in the Newmarket area.
Log in number 026 to Council of Florida for the following order for a hearing to discuss offering property tax abatements to property owners in the Newmarket area. The chair recognizes counsel. Clarity. Counsel, clarity. You of the floor. Thank you, Mr. President. As everybody on this body knows, particularly the district councils that have been covering this, the residents and business owners in the Newmarket and Mass and Cass area have experienced deteriorating and at times horrific conditions over the last several years. That includes decline in public safety, decline of public health, overall cleanliness in general, a decrease in their quality of life that are not necessarily reflected in property valuations in this area. As an at large councilor, I've done numerous walkthroughs with residents and business owners and advocates, along with neighborhood groups, city department leaders. And despite those efforts to increase city services and to better coordinate efforts across departments to meet the increased need in the area, and that includes expedited needle cleanup, sidewalk cleaning, mental health outreach and street workers, etc. We've still fallen short on our standards. So much so that the new market businesses have created a new market bid and are going around collecting fees from their members to finance supplemental services above and beyond what the city has been providing property taxes as folks now make up nearly 75% of our revenues. So again, suggesting an abatement for property taxes is not something that I take that I do serve lightly as a fiscal steward of the city. That said, I think this is a very unique and special case, and I feel that in recognition of our shortcomings, to provide an adequate level of city services to to the homeowners and to the business owners in the area, that we should explore the idea of offering a property tax abatement. Generally speaking, the driving idea behind this seeming order is the notion that taxpayers do deserve a high level of basic city services. And to some degree, I think we've dropped the ball here. And so looking forward to an expedited hearing, bring in the stakeholders. Let's talk about what area it would encompass and whether or not it makes sense for the city to offer them something even while the bid is ramping up. Maybe that's something that we can offer them. In addition to, we're going to be going at those businesses to to increase their contribution and or to make payments to the bid. And maybe we can offer them something in the short term that takes a little bit of a bite out of getting the bid going strong. And again, I know that there are folks here, our colleague Russell Baker is done, a lot of great work done. So Flynn on the bid not working with those folks. So this would be, I guess, a complement to that that if we can provide an abatement to to the residents, the homeowners business owners over there, you know , it may take a little bit out of their feeling that we, the city, have abandoned them over the last few years. As conditions continue to deteriorate in the area, they look forward again and feel free to hear some comments and welcome folks to sign on. Thank you, counsel. Clarity. Would any other counsel like to speak on this issue? If you do, can you please raise your hand? I see. Counsel Arroyo, the chair recognizes Counsel Arroyo. You have the floor. Thank you. President Flynn, I just have a question for the chairman. Would this apply to the residential folks in the area as well for some of the same similar reasoning? Or is this just for the business folks? And why the distinction or difference? Great. Thank you for the question. As referenced in my comments, the focus will be on the homeowners, the residents that are there. That's sort of priority number one, the residents and then obviously the businesses, both of them combined equally. And I've done the walk, as I'm sure you have, as well as our other colleagues up and down all those neighborhood streets and listening to the talk about having to clean out the needles and having their cars broken into and having people urinating and defecating and literally having sex out front of their house in their window, all of it trash, graffiti. And they continue to call us. They continue to reach out to the city, to public works, to everyone that would listen. And again, they felt that it fell on deaf ears, just given the complexity of the situation and all the issues that were involved with it and trying to deal with it in a in a in both balancing sort of the public safety and the public health needs. And sometimes they were on the same page, sometimes they weren't. So the the homeowners, the residents and some of them some of the city's highest taxpayers are in are in some of these properties. So. So, yes, the question is there will be for both. Thank you for that clarification. Please add my name. President. Yeah. Please said council Moreno's name. Would anyone else like to speak on this matter before we go to talk to others? Council braided. Your hand is raised. Beg your. Pardon? Of my omission. I forgot to Norman's. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Consulate. Edwards, you have your hand raised. Okay. If. If you would like to add your name, please, please raise your hand. Please add. Councilor Murphy, Councilor Baker, Councilor Wirral, council me here. Councilor Edwards. Councilor Fernandez Andersson. Councilor Borg. Council Councilor Braden, please. The chair. Console illusion. Darkened 0 to 62 will be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means. Mr. Clerk, please read docket 0263, please.