Brevard County Referendum 1

I have not been doing these anywhere near fast enough. I need to speed up or I will not have figured out all the items on the ballot before election day. Lets see, looks like I have 31 more ballot items left to figure out my vote on. I have five days to do it. That means I have to do six or seven a day from now until election eve. Urgh! Well, lets knock one out right now…

REFERENDUM 1
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AD VALOREM TAX EXEMPTIONS FOR NEW BUSINESSES AND EXPANSIONS OF EXISTING BUSINESSES

Shall the Board of County Commissioners of Brevard County continue to be authorized to grant, pursuant to Section 3, Article VII of the State Constitution, property tax exemptions to new businesses and expansions of existing businesses?

OK. A few seconds on Google finds a Florida Today Editorial that explains basically what this is (and endorses it). Basically there is a program that gives tax breaks for “new businesses” or businesses that are undergoing significant expansion. It is to encourage new businesses to locate or expand in Brevard. They say it has resulted in thosands of new jobs for the county. This referendum will allow them to continue the program.

I only spent a few minutes on it, but was not immediately able to find many opinions against this measure. And I’m all for lower taxes and such. And more businesses in the area make for a more healthy county (as long as there are not TOO many). So this is fine with me. So…

My vote: YES – FOR AUTHORITY TO GRANT EXEMPTIONS

OK. Lunch is over. Back to work. I’ll do more of these tonight.