- May 13, 2025
$42 million.
If the Flagler County Commission doesn't move forward with a half-cent sales tax, that's how much the county would need in three years to proceed with a countywide beach renourishment plan.
During a workshop on Monday, May 5, staff provided the commission with a budget overview to receive direction on a funding plan for the beach. Whatever the commission decides regarding the beach affects the budget for the 2026 fiscal year — and whether the county will start with nourishment in the unincorporated areas only. But Commission Chair Andy Dance said countywide construction needs are immediate.
"We've got residences that need as a quick of a relief on the beach so we can construct those areas and then start to go into maintenance," Dance said.
While county officials support the idea of a beach management plan, the commission remains split on having a half-cent sales tax funding it, with Commissioners Kim Carney and Pam Richardson being among the most vocal against it.
Carney said she believed the presentation would include information about the county's Environmentally Sensitive Lands program, which sunsets in 2028. She wanted to have a conversation now about whether that would go for reapproval before the voters in a referendum.
"If that doesn't pass referendum, then I would be much more open to have an additional half-cent," Carney said, who added she believed the county was overtaxing its citizens.
Commissioner Leann Pennington said she didn't think doing nothing for beach nourishment was an option this year. If the board can't agree on the half-cent sales tax, then they should move forward with a plan for the unincorporated areas.
Richardson said she wants to vet every opportunity to fund what is needed without a half-cent sales tax.
"I just don't want to raise taxes," she said. "I just don't. I said I would hold the line. I want to hold the line. People are not willing to pay more taxes for something that they're not living on."
Richardson said that to her, the beach is environmentally sensitive and doesn't know why the county can't use its ESL funds for beach management.
"No, I don't want to have a half-a-cent sales tax for anybody," she said. "Not at this point. Not when we're supposed to be DOGE-ing. Let's cut back some other things and let's make it happen."
The county's ESL program was created in 1988 via a referendum for the acquisition of environmentally sensitive lands, recreation areas and water recharge areas.
Dance said you can't use that fund for construction and maintenance projects on the beach.
"The language in the referendum is clear," he said.
Carney said she doesn't want to use those funds now — but that when it sunsets in 2028, the county will need to make a decision regarding the $20 million in the fund today.
"It is an option," she said. "I asked for options and I did not get one option."
Carney also suggested increasing the contract cost with the City of Palm Coast to use the Flagler County Sheriff's Office for law enforcement, and using those dollars to fund the beach.
"Our general fund was able to find $9 million to build the Nexus Center," she said. "... How did they find $9 million in two years to build the Nexus Center?"
It's "apples and oranges," Dance said, and County Manager Heidi Petito later clarified that the Nexus Center was funded largely with one-time federal coronavirus relief dollars.
If the commission gives staff guidance, staff will find what it can from the budget, Dance said. But it won't be enough to fund the beach countywide.
"We can't DOGE our way to $42 million in the next three years," he said. "... If anybody had a plan to raise $42 million in the next three years, they would like to see that."
After that, the county would need $12 million a year for ongoing maintenance.
Pennington, who remains against the sales tax, said the commission can move forward with proposing a half-cent sales tax and see how the community feels about it. In the meantime, the county can be working on a secondary plan that would either limit the beach renourishment to unincorporated areas, or perhaps place the half-cent sales tax on a referendum.
"We need to give them some sort of authority to push forward somewhere, but continue to workshop, just like we do," she said.
This story was updated at 9:20 a.m. May 13 to clarify that Commissioner Leann Pennington is against a half-cent sales tax for beach renourishment.
