DADE CITY – Pasco County commissioners are considering setting parks and recreation funding aside from the general fund to better support park operations and maintenance.
As the county prepares its annual budget, the needs of parks and recreation compete with the needs of other departments. This has caused parks and recreation to fall behind.
Amielee Farrell, director of the Pasco County Office of Management and Budget, introduced the idea March 11 of creating a Municipal Service Taxing Unit for parks and recreation.
The department would have its own millage rate placed on property tax bills, much like the fire department. Its revenue may increase over time as the county experiences growth.
District 2 Commissioner Seth Weightman was the biggest supporter of going this route.
Weightman appreciated the transparency of a separate fund. If commissioners wanted to adjust the budget to manage growth, he said the public would have an opportunity to advocate for or against.
District 3 Commissioner Kathryn Starkey favored this approach as well.
“It doesn’t matter to me as long as we get the money to safely and professionally operate and maintain our parks,” Starkey said. “We have more parks coming online with no money to maintain them.”
District 5 Commissioner Jack Mariano initially pushed back on the idea.
“The bottom line is we control the budget,” Mariano said. “If we want to increase the budget, I don’t need an MSTU to increase the budget.”
Mariano also had concerns about getting buy-in from cities. He felt like if the county goes in this direction, it needs buy-in from all cities to make it fair. About 91% of the county is unincorporated.
County officials acknowledged there has been mixed reaction from cities about this idea.
One potential equalizer that may be explored is charging fees to use county parks.
