By Matt Badiali
August 20, 2021
The disfunction between the City of Fernandina Beach and the Nassau County took an ugly turn this week. In order to “Send a Message” to the county, the city will now charge county children much more money to play ball.
Oddly, not a single child from the county spoke up at the meeting.
Several commissioners argued that other fees were too high. Impact fees, Commissioner Sturges pointed out, were too high. Phew, the construction industry in the city has a champion.
However, all seemed in agreement that taxing youth sports was necessary. Those county families needed to hear the message.
The mayor cited swimming lessons as an outrageous exploitation by county residents at the expense of city taxpayers.
A child who lives in the county “only” pay an extra $11 for a week of swimming lessons (that’s actually 25% more than a city resident).
The mayor said:
“That’s not enough. They pay no taxes. They pay nothing to support the swimming pool, the instructor, the cost of maintaining the pool. No. Send the Message. This is a city pool…”
The mayor wants to right that wrong by taxing county families.
His message is clear. If you live on the wrong side of that arbitrary line that meanders its way through our community, you will pay more to use city stuff.
But, according to he and other board members, it’s not their fault. The county drove them to tax the kids.
Commissioner Ross said that the challenge is that 1.6 million people per year come over the bridge, use our stuff and don’t pay. It’s a burden on the city.
I took that to mean, all those tourists who sneak in to sign up for Little League are wearing out our facilities.
Ross went on to say that the county came up with a ten-year recreation plan of $140 million, none of which would go to the city.
Both he and the mayor told the audience that it was the county’s fault. The county commissioners told the city council to “raise your fees”.
In their view, it’s the County Commissioners forcing them to tax the kids…
Confused yet? I am. Frustrated? Me too.
I’d like to see the City’s proposal to the County for a share of the recreation budget. It’s not that I don’t believe that the City asked for money…I’d just like to verify how it was done.
And I don’t disagree that the city should get money from the county to offset their use of facilities paid for in part with city taxes. I think there is a better way to get there, than the current plan.
I strongly disagree with taxing youth sports to “Send a Message”.
I’m left with the conclusion that, while we can afford to put guards and gates on our beaches, we can’t afford to let all the kids play ball.
Please let them all know, City and County, that taxing our kids isn’t okay.
By the way, I couldn’t make this stuff up…See for yourself here: https://fernandinabeachfl.new.swagit.com/videos/130600
Section 8.1.
Editor’s Note: Matt Badiali is a former Little League board member and volunteer at Elm Street.
Having to raise fees for youth services provided to those who can least afford it and need it the most is just one more consequence of this Ponzi scheme we call residential development.
I agree there’s silly spending going on all around us. For example the New-STOP signs at 1st and Simmons that replaced like new electronic signal devices that were like new. Clean up the spending before you burden parents of youth athletes.
Make non city residents pay more for everything! City residents are tired of paying for everyone else to enjoy what our taxes pay for!
Thank you for bringing this to light, it sounds like there is a better way to balance the books and to keep kids playing; I hope our representatives will reevaluate their stance on this.
At least some children benefit from our parks. I wondered who did since I never see anyone using them except for a few ball games and the occasional tennis player.
Last I was involved in Babe Ruth, we determined our own rates. A good bit of the cost was offset by community support. Are they raising facility fees to the independent organizations (baseball, football, soccer…etc) or just city run sports?
If they run county kids off, it doesn’t necessarily lower cost of running program. A field/building pretty much costs the same to maintain, no matter 3 or 6 teams. It does however affect registration fees, sponsorships and donations available for programs to run.
It’s not a tax on the kids, it’s called paying your fair share. City residents are paying two fees – the activity fee and their share of the budget of the P&R facilities funded by property taxes. Whereas the non-city residents are getting a break in only paying the activity fee with a meager 25% premium. While I agree that the City should have approached the County with a more detailed justification for support (number of county residents involved in programs, etc.), the message from the BOCC was loud and clear – raise your fees. Their response should have come as no surprise when the majority of BOCC represent off-island districts and gladly feed off the tax revenue from the island to fund their off-island activities. City residents will share in the cost of the County’s $140 million master recreation plan, but how many facilities located in the city (or even on the island) will be built/improved under that plan – ZERO. And how many non-city but county residents share in the property tax cost of the City’s recreational facilities – ZERO.
The city asked for a measly $50,000 from the county – that is 0.4% of the amount the county will spend each year on their P&R master plan. Folks can blame the city all they want but the facts are pretty clear.