Dave Berman

FLORIDA TODAY

Brevard County has a backlog of road maintenance projects totaling many millions of dollars.

And while many ideas have been floated on how to pay for the work, none has gotten any traction.

One camp says the only way to catch up on the road work is to raise taxes. Others, though, say that there is plenty of money in the county budget for road work, if only county commissioners would cut out "luxuries."

Meanwhile, the backlog of road work grows, as the county does not even spend enough on maintenance to maintain the status quo.

A special Blue Ribbon Advisory Board for Transportation Infrastructure reported that there is a 283-mile backlog in needed county road reconstruction. The county resurfaces eight miles of roads a year, but should be resurfacing 55 miles a year, so each year the issue is not addressed, the backlog grows by 47 miles.

Dealing with the annual road maintenance gap, combined with addressing the backlog, would cost the county $18.06 million a year for the next 15 years.

[Interactive: How would you find more money for Brevard's road projects?]

The advisory board in 2014 recommended several options, including a 6-cent-a-gallon increase in the gas tax, a half-percentage-point increase in the sales tax, and reinstatement of transportation impact fees on commercial and residential construction.

The Brevard County Commission has taken no action on implementing any of them, nor has it cut other items in the county budget to put more money in the account to pay for roads.

A proposal to increase the gas tax brought a large crowd of opponents to the County Commission chambers for a workshop on the issue last month. Yet commissioners voted 3-2 to continue the process toward implementing the tax.

The proposal to raise the gas tax would produce $7.77 million a year for the county, plus $3.82 million a year for Brevard’s cities and towns.

On Thursday, commissioners will hold a second workshop, and could vote then on what to do with the proposal. To be approved, the gas tax would need the support of four of the five commissioners. In the preliminary vote last month, two commissioners — Trudie Infantini and Curt Smith — indicated they were against the plan.

‘Scour this budget’

So what’s the solution?

Smith, who is vice chairman of the County Commission, said the county budget needs to be scrutinized to find things to cut.

Smith challenged the commissioners to “scour this budget, and see what you can come up with,” so that more money is available for road projects.

“We can discuss them. We can throw things at each other. And if we can’t come up with enough money, then we have to make some hard decisions there,” Smith told fellow commissioners during the 6½-hour workshop on the gas tax in December.

"I haven't found the magic bullet yet," Smith said last week. But he added that he is still looking, and plans to discuss what he finds during Thursday’s workshop.

Brevard commissioners move forward with gas tax increase

Smith said he realizes that every category of the budget has a constituency, and people will come out in force to defend the parks or libraries budgets, for example.

“We can come up with ideas, and bandy them about, and maybe come up with enough monies.” Smith said, “I’m ready to make people on both sides unhappy. I just want a solution, and then we’re going to live with this solution, and you can hate me or you can love me. Whatever. And I’m hoping that the other commissioners feel the same way. We’ve got to fix the problem.”

Infantini said she “could cry about all of the things we’ve done and wasted our money on” in recent years, citing certain economic development initiatives, community center projects and dealings involving Space Coast Stadium in Viera as examples.

‘Core services’ debate

A big focus of the gas tax debate has been over what the “core services” of the county government are. For example, are parks, libraries and the arts core functions of county government, or are those places to cut?

During commission discussion of the issue, Commissioner Andy Anderson ticked off a number of potential ways to cut the county budget — among them, reducing public safety spending, eliminating year-around lifeguards, eliminating grants to arts organizations, increasing fees for youth athletic programs, closing underutilized community centers, establishing fees for parking at beach parks.

“Yeah, I can do any of these things, but I need two other people to side with me” on the five-member County Commission, Anderson said. “There’s not three votes up here ... because we all define and our constituents define ‘core services’ differently.”

Matt Reed: How Brevard should decide on a gas tax

State and local taxes on gasoline have long been the primary source of money to maintain roads. But the amount of taxes collected per gallon has been stagnant for years, even as the cost of doing the work has increased. Meanwhile, cars are getting increasingly better gas mileage, meaning people are buying less gasoline — and paying less in gasoline taxes — for each mile they drive.

For example, Brevard County already collects 6 cents a gallon of local option gas tax, which was imposed effective Sept. 1, 1986. That tax raised about $9 million a year for the county during recent budget years. Of that, an average of about $5.92 million a year is being used to pay off debt on previous road improvements.

[Interactive: How would you find more money for Brevard's road projects?]

Brevard County Public Works Director John Denninghoff said, although there are more vehicles on the road, the vehicles are more fuel-efficient and some are electric.

So the long-term trend is that annual local option gas tax revenue to Brevard is decreasing, even as the county’s population increases, Denninghoff said.

Diverse public views

Among the dozens of speakers to come before the commission during the marathon workshop, many were opposed to raising the gas tax. But there were exceptions.

Melbourne resident Victoria Northrup, who was a member of the Blue Ribbon Advisory Board for Transportation Infrastructure that listed the gas tax increase as an approach to consider, said she continues to support that option.

“Our roads are not fixing themselves, and money’s not falling off the trees,” Northrup said.

She said grabbing money from various other county budget categories would amount to “a drop in the bucket,” as far as what’s needed for the road repairs, compared with what the gas tax could generate.

The gas tax increase, Northrup said, is a “pay-for-play” approach, in which motorists using the roads would be the ones paying for road repairs.

Six-cent-a-gallon Brevard gas tax increase proposed

Titusville resident Rob Bobay said he supports not only a gas tax increase, but also a sales tax increase and reinstatement of transportation impact fees on construction. Those impact fees have not been collected since 2009 under a moratorium that now runs until the end of this year.

“I think you need to do all three,” Bobay said. “The gas tax is not going to be enough.”

The sales tax would raise $17.46 million a year for Brevard County, plus $13.70 million a year for its cities and towns. It would need voter approval in a referendum.

Reinstating the transportation impact fees would raise $3.40 million a year for Brevard County, plus $2.70 million a year for its cities and towns. Money from impact fees could be used only for new road projects, not for maintenance.

But Melbourne Beach resident Dave Pasley, a member of the Brevard County Citizen Budget Review Committee, believes the county can find money in its budget to pay for more road repairs without resorting to a gas tax increase — albeit not from any single budget category.

[Interactive: How would you find more money for Brevard's road projects?]

“There is no pot of gold. It’s not there” in any individual department’s budget, Pasley said.

But, Pasley added, “Going through that budget, department by department, you’re going to find a lot of specks of gold.”

Smith agreed that there isn’t a pot of gold to find in the county budget, but there are things that can be trimmed.

“They’re nickel and dimes,” Smith said. “They’re nuggets.”

Money for nonprofits scrutinized

One big nugget Smith said he would like to see cut from next year’s budget is $510,000 for community-based nonprofit organizations.

While some nonprofits would lose money from the proposal, Smith noted that there are many others that do not get county money in the first place, yet they continue to thrive.

“That’s $500,000, year after year after year, and that’s recurring funds, and I think that we can do that,” Smith said. “You know, when it comes down to it, those are not the function of government.”

But Becky Lemstrom of Melbourne Beach, representing the South Brevard Women’s Center, one of the community nonprofit organizations that receives money from the county budget, urged commissioners to continue such funding.

“We’re not a road. But people services, I think, are core to our county and our area,” said Lemstrom, whose organization helps victims of domestic violence. It is receiving $60,000 this year from the county, and plans to use the money to help serve 470 clients.

Gas tax increase divides Brevard County Commission

Viera resident Terry Mott, in supporting the blue ribbon panel’s recommendations, said she is concerned about what would happen if other areas of the county budget were cut to pay for road projects.

“I don’t want to lose the quality of life that we have” in Brevard County, Mott said.

Smith said he is trying to keep emotions out of the equation.

“When I try to make a decision, I try not to get emotion involved,” Smith said. “I’m a facts guy. I work on no emotion. Obviously, we’ve got to fix some roads. I don’t care where the problem started. I just know it’s going to stop here. We’re going to have to make some more hard decisions. That’s the way I see it.”

Defending turf

Rockledge resident Marty Adams said there will be people displeased by whatever county commissioners do to cut budgets — be it in parks, libraries, economic development programs or any of a host of other budget categories.

But, Adams said, that doesn’t mean any budget category should be exempt from potential cuts.

[Interactive: How would you find more money for Brevard's road projects?]

“Each tribe defends its turf,” Adams said. “And, in truth, every tribe has some room for adjustment.”

Merritt Island resident John Weiler, in listing various budget-cutting options to fund more money for roads, said: “All it takes is political will. There are many ways to skin this cat.”

Sales tax option

Palm Bay City Councilman Tres Holton said he supports the County Commission voting to put a proposal on the November ballot to raise the sales tax by a half cent on the dollar to help pay for road repairs.

He said the Palm Bay City Council, as well as the government bodies in six other Brevard municipalities, have supported having such a referendum.

“We believe the people should have a voice,” Holton said. “They should have a right to speak on this. Let the voters vote on it, and let them have a say.”

County Commissioner Robin Fisher said he is frustrated that the backlog of road repair work has built up so much without the County Commission taking action.

“The quality of life is very important to this county, and it is unfortunate that this can has been kicked down the road, kicked down the road and kicked down the road,” said Fisher, who is in his eighth and final year as a county commissioner, as are Anderson and Infantini. “At the end of the day, we’ve just got to make a decision.”

County Commission Chairman Jim Barfield, who pushed forward the discussion on the gas tax increase, said he is anxious for some resolution to the issue of how to pay for road work.

“We’re looking for solutions,” Barfield said. “I just want a decision.”

As the December hearing on the gas tax increase was winding down, Barfield — who, like Smith, just completed his first year as a commissioner — said: “I feel like I’ve been here for 10 years. I mean, that’s just tonight.”

Contact Berman at 321-242-3649 or dberman@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @ByDaveBerman and on Facebook at facebook.com/dave.berman.54

[Interactive: How would you find more money for Brevard's road projects?]

WORKSHOP THURSDAY

The Brevard County Commission will hold a gas tax workshop at 1 p.m. Thursday at the Brevard County Government Center, Building C, 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way, Viera.