Business View Magazine - October 2018

154 155 utility requirements are, what your space needs are, and we’re able to meet those needs and put you into a pre-developed site, so you can worry about getting your facility constructed and get- ting on to producing or manufacturing whatever your goods and services are.” Another way in which Bay County hopes to attract new business is by paying attention to its transportation and infrastructure needs - things that tend to be at the top of the list for compa- nies that are looking to relocate to an area, ac- cording to Majka. “Back in 2016, the voters in Bay County approved a half-cent surtax referendum that annually generates in excess of $20 million a year,” he says. “That $20 million is shared pro- portionately amongst the county and its munici- palities and it can only be spent on infrastructure projects; the money can’t be used to hire employ- ees, it cannot be used for benefits, it cannot be used for maintenance; it has to be used for either maintaining or reconstructing or installing new infrastructure, whether it’s transportation, storm- water, public safety, utilities, water and sewer – all of those are eligible expenses. “The thought process there was to no longer wait on money from the state or federal gov- ernments, but to take control of our own destiny and keep that money home and reinvest it in BAY COUNTY, FLORIDA ways that would have a significant return to the community. One of the upsides, because we have a tourism-based economy, is that a significant portion of that sales tax is paid by visitors, so it also eases the tax burden on the local residents. It’s another method for us to be able to keep the taxes down on our residents. In fact, in transpor- tation, for example, we were annually transferring $3 million a year from our General Fund into Transportation just to be able to limp along, to get road resurfacing projects done.We were able to eliminate that transfer and, as a result, were able to cut the tax rate by .25 mills. So, the voters not only approved the surtax, but on the property tax side, they received the benefit of a cut in their tax rate. “We’re in the second year of collecting that tax; our portion of that tax is estimated at a little over $12 million a year. In our first year, we were able to leverage that into an additional $14 million in grant funds. So, in the first year, alone, we were able to address almost $26 million in infrastruc- ture needs, just in the unincorporated area – that doesn’t include what’s going on within the munic- ipalities. So, from a business development perspec- tive, if we needed to make some improvements to one of the Florida First sites, or extend some utili- ties, or infrastructure, or transportation infrastruc- ture to help encourage or attract someone to come, we’ve got the financial means to do that.”