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• 7. MONEY CANNOT BE USED FOR OPERATING EXPENSES 8. LIMITED TIME PERIOD - It would be in affect for a maximum of fifteen years. 9. LIKELIHOOD OF STATE GIVING COUNTIES AND CITIES OTHER ALTERNATIVE REVENUE SOURCES - The state is in the same position as the County. It cannot keep up with capital improvements and is looking for ways to pay for its infrastructure. In fact, the State mandates more programs to the County every day without a revenue stream that will adequately support them. 10. MINHWU ROAD IMPACT FEE INCREASES -In 1988 the County had estimated a shortfall of $60 million dollars to purchase right-of-way and construct roads over the next twenty years. This cost is figured in the calculation of road impact fees adding to the cost of construction within the County. 11. OPTIONAL SALES TAX CHARGED UP TO CAP OF $5,000-00 IN PURCHASES (PER TRANSACTION) - (A maximum optional additional sales tax paid on each item purchased of $50.00.) Conclusion The Indian River County Board of County Commissioners, on January 31, 1989 passed ordinance 89-6 calling for a county -wide referendum on the levy of the one cent sales tax to be held on Tuesday, March 14, 1989. Shortly thereafter the Optional Sales Tax was endorsed by every City within Indian River County. The Chamber of Commerce, Taxpayers Association, Civic Association, Gifford Progressive League, Board ofRealtors, Association of General Contractors and the Treasure Coast Home Builders Association all endorsed the Optional Sales Tax at that time. The voters passed .the Optional Sales Tax to go into effect June 1, 1989. (60.3% voted for the tax and 39.7% voted against the tax.) When promoting the Optional Sales Tax, the Indian River County Board of County Commissioners put additional constraints on the use of the sales tax by promising that proceeds would be used only for essential capital projects that the County would have used tax dollars to complete (i.e. ad valorem, gas tax). It was also emphasized that in the future a good portion of Optional Sales Tax would go towards the purchase of right-of-way and roads to help offset the deficit in the Comprehensive Plan. An additional commitment was made to have a list of projects approved in five year intervals by the Board of County Commissioners in a public hearing. The planning of the third and final five year list of projects has been initiated (actually only 4 %2 years remain October 1, 1999 to May 31, 2000). The Budget Office requested a list of major projects from each department with the estimated cost, the year it will be needed, beginning construction date, length of construction time and estimated annual operating costs for five years after project completion. On November 10, 1998 staff presented the Board of County Commissioners with a list of projects for preliminary planning purposes. As expected, more projects were submitted than there was money available. A total of over $95 million in projects were submitted with only slightly over $50 million in estimated revenues for the final five year period. Staff has reviewed the requests and has recommended projects that were felt to be consistent with the original plan. During the review process, a significant emphasis was placed on the projects' affect on the County's operating budget. Factors such as other potential revenue sources were taken into consideration when determining to fund the project from Optional Sales Tax. Examples of this are the Roads and Bridges where staff looked at the other revenue sources such as County Gas Tax, Constitutional Gas Tax, Optional Gas Tax and Road Impact Fees. JUNE 229 1999 67 BOOK 1PAGE UP