Note: This is the first of two articles today on Thursday evening’s hearing before the County Commission on next year’s property tax rate, budget and special taxing district. The second article, an overview of the hearing, will publish later today.
Speaking to a capacity crowd at a budget hearing Thursday evening, Flagler County Commissioner Kim Carney, who has complained of misinformation getting peddled around about county business, dispensed false and misleading information of her own on a central issue dividing the commission: the imposition of an additional sales surtax to help pay for a long-term beach-protection plan.
Carney was speaking at the first of two hearings setting next year’s property tax rate and approving the county budget, as well as a special taxing district for the barrier island. (The taxing district is a placeholder: no actual tax was proposed.) Carney claimed Flagler County could not impose the new sales tax without the cities’ agreement. Under state law, it very much can and has. She also claimed misleadingly that she could not vote for a sales tax increase that would dictate to future commissions how revenue would be spent.
Carney’s misinformation was consequential because she appeared to be using it at least in part to defend her decision not to support the half-cent sales tax increase proposed earlier this year. That increase was to be a key part of the funding mechanism for the county’s long-term beach-management program.
Commissioners Pam...
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