New Updates from Jackson County Florida

By Deborah Buckhalter

Published: July 22, 2008

Jackson County Commissioners on Tuesday approved the Compass Lake in the Hills Municipal Special Taxing Unit assessment of $135 per parcel in the 6,344-lot subdivision, the same amount as last year.
Citizens entered the discussion with concerns about how the subdivision’s Property Owners Association’s manages the budget overall.
The POA, by contract, has managed the MSTU funds since the the taxing authority has been in existence, and has come under criticism for the past three or four years.
Some who pay taxes into the fund have alleged that the money is sometimes spent on uses not authorized in the ordinance that set up the MSTU.
After reviewing complaints and records this fiscal year, Jackson County Commissioners have taken greater control of the budget for the coming year and going forward.
Now, for instance, the POA is given a 20 percent management fee and the rest of the tax money is held in a special account to be drawn on as approved expenditures are made. Until this year, all the money collected was handed over to the POA in a lump sum, with little county oversight into how closely expenditures matched the budget submitted each year.
Under the newly-negotiated management contract and closer county control, budget amendment will be required if the POA wishes to deviate from the line-item MSTU budget of roughly $860,000 approved Tuesday.
The two big-ticket items approved for purchase are a dump truck, with a down-payment of roughly $25,000 approved Tuesday, and $43,000 worth of new equipment for the volunteer fire department. The lion’s share of the fire department’s allocation will go toward outfitting a new brush truck for the crew.