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Economic Plan Would Combine Century, Escambia And Pensacola Efforts
May 15, 2009
Details have emerged about an economic development plan to be presented next week by Escambia Commissioner Gene Valentino at a joint meeting of the commission and the Pensacola City Council. The plan 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.
PEDA would operate under Florida’s Sunshine laws, allowing public access to meetings and documents. There are exceptions to Florida’s public records laws that allow for the protection of proprietary information and trade secrets.
The group would hire a director to be the “single point person”. The director and the board will provide “a single point of contact for issues related to economic development”.
“PEDA is about tearing down walls and barriers and perceptions and opening up the process to everyone,” states the proposal to be presented at the joint city-county meeting next week. “Today, we have an opportunity to shake off the economic development strategy of the past and create a new way of competing in an age where talent is king, entrepreneurship is crucial, and innovation must be in our community DNA.”
Currently, Escambia County relies on the Pensacola Chamber of Commerce for economic development. The chamber presented an economic development plan to the commission in late March, but commissioners criticized the plan, including Valentino who called it a “pay to play” plan where a few private individuals put up money for development, expecting personal gain in return.
Click here to watch the presentation video.
Read the proposal by clicking here (2.1Mb pdf).
Pictured top: A screen from the presentation of a new economic development proposal that will be presented Tuesday at a joint Escambia County Commission – Pensacola City Council meeting.
Comments
21 Responses to “Economic Plan Would Combine Century, Escambia And Pensacola Efforts”
As I said, prove that there is an abundant amount of tax dollars in NE. You will find that NE would be a burden. So..No thank you.
Repley to tax doallars We do not wish to join you either, but it seems that the city always wants us to join them, but we know it is for taxation only. So judgeing from the current state of the city, we just want to say no thank you.
Prove it !!
I beg to differ. There are more fine homes north of nine mile road than in all the old dilapidated neighborhoods of the city boundaries. We pay exhorbitant property taxes, and we cherish our “country style” living. We do not see any benefit to the north end with this proposal. It will only dilute our amenities we now have and raise our financial responsiblity to supporting crack neighborhoods, run-down, sub-code and hurricane damage prone areas. The city planners cannot and have not come up with any plans for industry in Pensacola aside from tourist trade and a ball park. They have continuously turned away chances for economic development because it didn’t suit their vision. I do not want to be a part of their failed vision. Their track record speaks volumes.
Well thank you, you finally get the point , but the insults just prove my point. All we would be is a tax base , with no respect, and no voice, just a faceless dollar to support the life style of the city of pensacola. No thank you.
News Flash……The City of Pensacola does not want you either. The paltry taxes generated by the majority substandard housing in the north end would be a negative factor for combining all 3 governments. Why would they want to dilute their far superior city services by combining with the county? Thats a good question that I would like answered. Most homes in N.E ( house trailers and other shacks) dont even pay taxes because they are below the 50 grand exemption so more burden on us tax payers.
gulf power does not want to build a power plant on roach road .period…but i do have the answer these people seek to combine citys and escambia ciunty and l will be happy to share it with them.
What EAFO will not tell you is that jacksonville has not been hit with a major hurricane in 40 years. Now or course they have done well because they have not spent millions of dollars on rebuilding. Now do you want to be part of a government the continues to build in flood zone’s in a hurricane prone city.? And who do you think will pay to rebuild when we all become “cirt residents”? We will of course! Do we wish to be govern, by a group that is obessed with tourism? Do we wish to pay for city pension plan’s? Look very close at pensacola and ask yourself, do you like the way they run the city? I am not impressed and prefer to help to fix what we already have.
Well Said Bob! Why involve so many people on a board anyway. Its just too many hands in the pie and most represented from the lower Part of the county. Walls or no Walls it just sounds like the same-O same-O to me. Pensacola wants it all and at everyones else expense in the county. I am 65 plus years (entire life) in the North end of the county and have seen us lose continually. Now no schools even, and Just this week the county announced that they were closing the court house, tax collection etc. effective in June. Not long ago we lost the driver licenes and renewed office. Yep! want the money but no services. The only big business in the North end ( I mean north of Molino Cross roads-the real North end of the county, is a Prison and I guess if it was not such a low down business to be in, it would be in Pensacola too.
I am Dead set against it all the way………….
I can tell you what happen one time when Century, Pensacola and Escambia county were involved in economic development. Century had a door plant with dozens of good paying jobs with good benefits. Pensacola saw that this was good and got Escambia county to develop it straight to Ellyson Field with very few people being allow to transfer, insuring that most of the pay checks would stay in the south end of the county. If you believe that this bunch intends to do something good for the north end of the county, then you are probably fooling yourself very badly.
HOLY FREAKING NOVEL I JUST TYPED OUT! I think my novel needs consolidation!
The sewer plant needed to be moved. Its current location is just begging to be damaged by another hurricane. Then if FEMA spends money repairing it again then we all loose out again.
My family history (Taylor’s & Maloney’s) goes back well over 50+ years in Pensacola. Then some of the family moved north in the 80’s & early 90’s. I know there are some people who have just as much history in North Escambia as my family does in Pensacola.
If you got all that kind of history in Escambia County then you or the elders in your family can tell you how the county has grown. Some growth good & some bad. So to me its no suprise to see the attempt of government consolidation. It has possibilities to bring good quality growth all over the county. Unfortunately if the planning looks bad the North Escambia area may have no chance reject the plan. Depending on how the voting will be done. We’ll just get out voted by the masses from the South end of the county.
My biggest lack of understanding here is the funding. The 3 governments in this are being funded by their current taxes, budgets, and so forth. So if it is decided to combined all 3 governments why is there a need to increase taxes to run PEDA? I mean if you can’t run one consolidated government on the budget of three then we might have a problem here. It just sounds like Obama sized big government. I want to be the Offshore Oil Gas Czar!!!
PSC… What are you talking about? Century can now boast that their students attend the best schools in the county! So what if the buildings are not in the town limits.
Here goes the BOCC again with another tax increase for us to support an economic boondoggle. We’ll pay more for electricity, water, garbage service and a host of the things with a 1% increase in the franchise fee. And what happens when the money is not enough? It’s easy because the structure is in place; they (commissioners) will increase the fee!!!
Not really sure i understand this, but they want the Century area to work with Pensacola area to bring new business to this area? One question, will any of this progress come to Century, that has no public school now and kids are being bussed to other areas …Who will want to be in this area with very little local benefits?
PEDA sounds too much like PETA! If this is a county driven initiative, why isn’t Escambia out in front with Pensacola taking the backseat? This is just one more move towards consolidation of the county into the city, which I’m dead set against.
No doubt economic growth is needed and there is plenty of open space for it. But good luck finding anything that you can get the people to accept in their neighborhood. Ask Gulf Power, they want to build a plant on Roach Rd.
Well, it sounds like this could go either way. I understand that Pensacola has the problem of being locked into the area they have and physical expansion isn’t feasible, which after living in Charlotte and seeing the opposite where the city was able to expand, as well as increase density, it does make for a stronger business case to allow this growth. But it also allowed the county to become either part of the city or one of the surrounding towns till there is very little left of the county that is unincorporated. The question for Pensacola comes back to how does it grow within its confinement? With current trends for walkable cities the trend will definitely need to be higher density within the city limits along with smart planning from that point out.
As to this board, it seems too large. Put too many in charge and you’ll end up debating an issue until it is dead on arrival by the time they act. Also for a program that is geared toward economic development its make up is odd, lacking a representative of the business community.
I could see this working if the parties understand the health of the region will require all areas to benefit and the members are true leaders, but the inverse could be the north end’s worse thoughts.
Good luck with this one.
I agree Bob
Otherwise meaning, lets funnel all money from surrounding areas and put it into Pensacola. This new Cosmopolitan area for the rich.
They are trying to build it into something it is not. It is not a play ground for the mega rich, it is a Navy and Port town it always was and always will be.
Trying to push the poor out of downtown who have had their homes for generations, but not that they care. Don’t forget they want to move THEIR waste water treatment place up this end as well (at our expense) because they don’t like the smell downtown.
We have wastewater treatment plant on Mjuscogee Road, IP and Solutia to deal with.
Put your foot down people, this is not just their say because they have more money. We have right as well, and it is not in our best interests at all on their minds.
They are very protective of their City Limit bounderies, so don’t be stepping the line and on our toes Mr Valentino.
Now why does the city of pensacola get two? I know that Valentino is pro-consolidation, and it would give the city a leg up in directing which way the funds would be directed. So if this plan is used the give the city one voice like everyone else.