The tax exempt status of the United Peninsula Association and its effect on a Florida Department of Transportation project was discussed at a meeting last Wednesday in the Tiger Point Golf Clubhouse.

Santa Rosa Commissioners held hearings last week to start allocating the county’s approximately $100 million budget.  Raises for county employees was a request made repeatedly by constitutional officers to the board, which voted to move forward with the process to increase property taxes three percent to facilitate the $1.35 million needed to fund the pay hike.

The South End Tourist Development Committee, which makes bed tax funding recommendations to the Santa Rosa County Tourist Development Council (TDC), voted to support a well-presented $125,000 request from the Marine Science Station on Wednesday, but ignored a $145,000 request from Commissioner Bob Cole for the Agri-Plex in East Milton due to a lack of supporting documentation.

Santa Rosa’s RESTORE Council is trying to determine how to establish evaluation criteria to review projects submitted to the county for funding via RESTORE Act dollars. So far, 19 proposed projects have been submitted for consideration. For a complete list of proposed projects, visit our website at http://www.navarrepress.com/news/13/6333-nineteen-projects-vie-for-restore-act-funds. At the July 8 RESTORE Council meeting, Commissioner Lane Lynchard, who serves as chairman of the council, pointed out that just three of the submitted projects add up to roughly $130 million, underscoring the need for the county to develop evaluation criteria to make funding decisions. “We’re going to have to really work and prioritize the funding that we get,” said Lynchard.