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Jens Tripson, 2525 14th Street, asked if the MSTU would place a tax upon the <br />residents in the unincorporated areas of the County. <br />County Budget Director Jason Brown acknowledged that the MSTU would be a <br />taxing district that would be ad valorem property taxes, and which could also be adopted in the <br />unincorporated areas and with the consent of the Municipalities, in the incorporated areas. <br />Commissioner Wheeler made observations on the difference between an MSTU <br />and an MSBU. Director Brown further clarified that an MSBU is an assessment which must <br />show a derived benefit in order to create a charge, and that the MSTU amount was based on the <br />valuation of the property set by the millage rate. <br />Mr. Tripson objected to having a tax imposed upon the residents of the <br />unincorporated areas, which was not shared by residents of the Municipalities, because all <br />residents use the beaches. <br />County Administrator Baird noted that the County currently uses the optional sales <br />tax to offset maintenance costs for the beaches. He declared that the Cities, which also receive a <br />share of those taxes, could vote to use the optional sales tax revenues to share costs. <br />Bill Glenn, 1802 East Barefoot Place, Chairman, Beach and Shore Advisory <br />Committee, provided background history on prior and proposed actions relating to beach erosion. <br />He told the Board that the City of Vero Beach had hired a lobbyist to further investigate $5 <br />million which was sitting in Washington, and which had been earmarked for a proposed County <br />project (which had been defeated) in 1998. Mr. Glenn thereafter made observations about the <br />importance of the beaches, and established his support for the creation of the MSTU, rather than <br />the MSBU. <br />33 <br />February 3, 2009 <br />