{"id":44179,"date":"2019-08-14T23:54:57","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T03:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=44179"},"modified":"2019-08-14T23:55:05","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T03:55:05","slug":"lehigh-acres-municipal-services-and-improvement-district-rate-increase-and-squabbles-over-possible-adoption-of-additional-powers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2019\/08\/lehigh-acres-municipal-services-and-improvement-district-rate-increase-and-squabbles-over-possible-adoption-of-additional-powers\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh Acres Municipal Services and Improvement District rate increase and squabbles over possible adoption of additional powers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District will hold a special budget hearing on Aug. 19 at 5 p.m. to recommend a tax increase from 2018 rates of $120.15 per acre. To the proposed increase is not to exceed $10.00 per acre, so the 2019 rate will not exceed $130.15 per acre.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Following the hearing, a regularly scheduled meeting will\ntake place at 6 p.m. at the LA-MSID, at 601 East County Lane. Prior to the\nregular meeting, there will be a budget hearing at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lehigh Acres Municipal Services and Improvement District met on Aug. 8 for a special workshop to discuss potential powers available through state statutes, Chapter 2015-202.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional powers discussed included Planning Advisory Panel\nfor Lehigh Acres, Street Lights, Local Streets and Sidewalks and Water and\nWaste Water Services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former state representative Matt Caldwell spoke before the\nboard and discussed the reasons why the special district was initially formed:\nto address the many needs of Lehigh Acres’ infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caldwell went over certain aspects of assuming each power.\nHe felt street lighting in particular, to be simpler “power” since it\nwas a question of governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Street lighting is a power where the citizens of\nLehigh tax themselves, so that is just an issue of governance. The caveat is\nthat this board is authorized to make non-ad valorem assessments and that\nparticular board operates off of a millage rate. You would have to make sense\nof how that is going to translate in the transfer of those powers”\nCaldwell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caldwell also spoke in favor of LA-MSID overseeing a\nPlanning Advisory Panel for Lehigh Acres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I would love to see this board have the opportunity to\nhave a group of people who are elected to speak for this community. They are\nthe ones that I think should be directing specific changes in the land use plan\nfor this community. Changes are not going to happen unless an elected body from\nLehigh Acres takes the lead,” Caldwell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The board then heard from Steve Spratt, assistant manager of\nFlorida Governmental Utility Authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

District Chair Michael Bonacolta, asked Spratt if he had the\nopportunity to review the district’s study on obtaining water and sewage\npowers, and his thoughts on the feasibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s really a policy, government question. Only the\ncounty government has the exclusive right to acquire FGUA. And there are bond\ncovenants that govern what they have to do to buy it,” Spratt said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Lee County Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass, the\ndiscussion as to whether the LA-MSID could assume powers over water and sewage\nis futile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If it did come before the county, I would definitely\nnot support it. They would end up having to raise the assessment fees to pay\nfor the cost of acquiring FGUA. I don’t support raising the fees and putting\nthat kind of burden on Lehigh Acres residents. I’m concerned as to why they are\neven considering doing this,” Pendergrass said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pendergrass went on to urge the district to focus on where\nits current authority falls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They have so many other liabilities to take care of\nsuch as the bridges in Lehigh. I think they should start thinking more about\nbuilding up capital reserves in case they need it for things like bridge\nrepairs or a replacement bridge,” Pendergrass said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

District commissioners did agree to sit down with Spratt\nfrom FGUA to discuss further areas where improvements can be made to the\ncurrent water and sewage infrastructure and future plans for expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The board also heard presentations from Mohamed Yasin, of\nLehigh Acres Street lighting Unit (MSTU) Advisory Committee and Tami Baker of\nThe Lehigh Acres Architectural, Planning and Zoning Review Board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District will hold a special budget hearing on Aug. 19 at 5 p.m. to recommend a tax increase from 2018 rates of $120.15 per… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":44180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44179"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}