- December 15, 2025
With the new taxes, the average homeowner would pay about $8 per month, or $92.16 per year.
As stormwater infrastructure in Palm Coast continues to deteriorate, city officials agreed Tuesday to impose two taxes to help fund the budget for citywide improvements.
The two taxes would be a 6% utility franchise fee and a 2% utility tax. Both would appear on residents’ electric bills.
The stormwater fee currently costs homeowners about $8 per month. The franchise fee and utility tax would be slightly lower. At 6%, the fee would generate $6.36, and the 2% tax would generate $1.32, for $7.68 per month.
According to Tuesday’s presentation, the yearly cost to the typical homeowner would be $92.16, down from $96.
At the April 25 City Council workshop, City Manager Jim Landon referred to the current stormwater fee as a “bureaucratic mess.” The fee, he said, meets legal requirements, but there are several inequities.
With the current fee, the burden is on the residents, while many commercial lots see exemptions and pay little to no fees at all, Landon said.
Two years ago, the city collected $6.5 million in stormwater fees. Last year, it took in about $5.8 million. This fiscal year, the city is projected to collect $4.9 million, well below the revenue for the expected $7.5 million in infrastructure improvements.
As a result of the shortfall, the city took out about $9.2 million in loans in 2010 and 2011.
This year, the city will use its $2.6 million in revenue from the half-cent sales tax and property taxes. (The half-cent sales tax expires Dec. 31.)
At Tuesday’s meeting, City Councilman Bill McGuire said that when voters hear that a surtax will appear on their Florida Power & Light bill, “there will be rioting in the streets.”
Palm Coast Mayor Jon Netts pointed out that thousands of other cities have already implemented such taxes.
Landon said it’s still questionable whether the half-cent sales tax will be available later this fall. (The County Commission and the municipalities will meet Monday to discuss the sales tax.)
“Let’s call it what it is, and that is — in order to maintain the system — you’re going to have to charge a tax to maintain the system,” Landon said in regard to the proposal of the franchise fee and utility tax.
City Councilman Jason DeLorenzo said he’s not in support of either tax, but that he wasn’t sure there was any other way to fund the stormwater program. DeLorenzo, as well as City Councilmen Frank Meeker and McGuire, were not in support of the additional 2% tax.
If the plan moves forward, the stormwater fee would be terminated Oct. 1.
Meanwhile, the 6% franchise fee and the 2% public service tax would have to be effective by Oct. 1. Additionally, allocation of other funding sources will be discussed during this year’s budget process.
Netts said the variables, such as property values and the half-cent sales tax, are still unknowns.
“I would prefer that we keep as much flexibility as possible,” he said.
