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Valentino Outlines Century, Pensacola And Escambia Combined Economic Plan
May 20, 2009
Commissioner Gene Valentino unveiled his economic development plant Tuesday afternoon at a joint meeting of the Escambia County Commission and the Pensacola City Council.
The plan, just as NorthEscambia reported last week, would see Century, Escambia County and Pensacola working together on economic development.
Under the plan, an independent economic development authority — the Pensacola Escambia Development Authority (PEDA) — to be led by a 15 member board with a $300,000 to $600,000 budget.
Each of the five county commissioners would appoint one member, Pensacola City Council two representatives and the Century Town Council would appoint one. The board members would select three persons with experience in military, education and minority business interests. The board would accept nominations from the community from “a variety of current future business assets” to serve in the four remaining board seats for a total of 15 members.
The majority of the funding for PEDA would come from a telecommunications service tax and franchise taxes on electric and gas service. It is expected that the increased taxes will cost the average Escambia household about $1.50 per month average in utility bill increases. A one percent utility franchise fee increase would net the commission about $6 million per year to use as economic incentives to lure industry.
The plan raised a lot of questions at Tuesday’s meeting.
Pensacola council member P.C. Wu said Pensacola brings great value to the table because the city owns the airport, the port and the ESP natural gas franchise. Because of that great value, council member Diane Mack said that Pensacola should have five members on the committee, equal to the five seats that would be appointed by the commission. Valentino’s plan allots the seats based upon population, with Century having a single seat.
Mack disagreed that the $1.50 per household assessment would generate $6 million; her math, she said, indicated it would be closer to $3 million. She also questioned if the commission’s appointments to the board would become too political, suggesting that each commissioner provide a list of candidates from which one would be chosen.
District 5 Commissioner Kevin White, who represents North Escambia, echoed Mack’s concern that appointments would become too political. Commissioner Wilson Robertson expressed concern over how the economic development committee would operate “in the sunshine”, following Florida’s stiff public records and open meetings laws.
Commissioner Grover Robinson did not speak in favor of the plan, saying that the county did not need to be in the business of selling itself.
Strong opposition to the plan was voiced by Gulf Power, with company officials saying that they would not support the one percent franchise fee hike in Valentino’s plan.
The next step for the plan is for the committees of the whole from both the city and the county to individual consider the plan and take any action they wish.
Watch Valentino’s proposal here.
Pictured: Escambia Commissioner Gene Valentino outlines his economic development plan at a joint meeting of the Escambia County Commission and the Pensacola City Council Tuesday afternoon.
Comments
6 Responses to “Valentino Outlines Century, Pensacola And Escambia Combined Economic Plan”
I am not fond of Diane Mack…..she wants 5 members on the committee to be appointed from Pensacola. Sure Ms. Mack, whatever you want!
I am not surprised that Gulf Power does not want to support it. They will have to furnish the financial staff to track what they will receive then have to pay to PEDA. More cost for them and they get nothing in return.
I would like to see the real number’s from the chamber on how much that they really spent on tourist promotion VS industral, and real job markets. And No I do not trust Valintino, he is pro -consolidation, and I believe he is really only looking out for pensacola. So the chamber needs to get those number’s out in black and white print , and let’s see who is fooling who. And really will they ever have enough money? They start small and snow ball.
Well spoken Ms Mack! You sound just like what this is all about, PENSACOLA and not ESCAMBIA as a whole!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You don’t turn down your portion of the money from a Plan ticket that I purchase at you preicous Airport. Port HA! What Port. Not much there last time I looked.
If Pensacola has problems, MONEY wise, SIZE wise or OTHERWISE. Let them work it out on their own and within THEIR boundries. I’m north for this silly mess.
Keep your problems in Pensacola and not North Escambia!
IMHO, nothing new here… It sounds like just a bigger form of the Chamber, with a larger budget (more of our taxes) and more government (to mess things up). Let’s just fix the Chamber if it needs fixing (I believe they just came up with some new plans to do just that)…I do not think the Chamber is so bad that they need to reinvent the wheel…Apparently he never talked to Gulf Power about his (new) funding source! lol…Wasn’t that his big selling point? Fully Funded….
I don’t like the sound of their acronym. That’s a bad sign from the git-go.
Well another tax and spend politician, and he thinks he has a new and unique plan to rip the taxpayers off and pad the pockets of his cronies. We’ve been there and done that for years. He proposes taking economic developement away from the Chamber of Commerce and giving it to a nonprofit authority or independent economic developement authority. Am I living in outer space? I think the current Chamber of Commerce meets both of these criteria. When will the politicians quit insulting our intellegence with smoke and mirror politics and cute little acronyms??