Volusia County, FL - During their Thursday meeting, the Volusia County Council discussed the 2017-2018 budget and concerns about project spending, taxes and their plan to "go to zero" debt.
During the discussion, Council Vice Chair and District 3 Representative Deborah Denys raised concerns about how the County can "go to zero" and continue on budget with their long list of projects and outstanding bills.
Denys said that the combination of $8 million in outstanding debt, $22 million towards Hurricane Matthew related projects, $13 million towards the First Step Homeless Shelter, $100 million towards new construction for a courthouse and plans to "go to zero" with no partial or full tax rollback, makes her uncomfortable.
Denys said that with no public hearing on the courthouse, it seemed like the Council was approving it without input from the public. "We've had more discussion on backyard chickens than we have a $100 million new construction courthouse," said Denys.
Denys also expressed her concerns that the new Votran expansion, which was publicly discussed, will be delayed because of the controversy with the courthouse project. "Look at the discussion we had on services to our citizens on Votran and workshops. Now, that's the very basic transportation needs for our citizens. But yet, I've been told that well we can't implement that until the council passes the budget," said Denys. "I don't want projects to be held hostage based on whether or not we do a rollback or partial rollback if we can still get there and still come to a $100 million capital construction project on a courthouse."
"If we're going the premise of "go to zero" very genuinely, I think we need to regroup here because I'm okay with not going to zero," said Denys. "Doing a rollback or, at a minimum, a partial rollback, and still doing the project - I think we can accomplish everything, but I think we owe the citizens and the tax payers a better discussion on the project."
Other council members were also in agreement on the controversy of the new courthouse project.
"I'm in agreement with that but I want to be very clear that the presentation that we had from the manager did not obligate us as the final project. And I don't want it to be understood by citizens that we ok something without having had some discussion, without having some public hearings," said Councilwoman Joyce Cusack.
"I agree with all of this. I think what the bottom line is we just want the citizens to know that we are a part of the process. That we are in the stages of making the decisions but we haven't made a final decision, but we want to be in the conversation," said Councilwoman Bille Wheeler.
The first public hearing on the 2017-2018 budget will be on September 7 at 6 PM. For earlier reporting on this story, go here.
Photo courtesy of Congarashu and Shutterstock.com.
Copyright Southern Stone Communications 2017.
