Volusia County is closer to a compromise with its cities on the thorny issue of Community Redevelopment Areas, or CRAs.
CRAs have been a contentious topic of late, but needlessly so. When properly proposed and approved, the CRAs take new property-tax revenue that a blighted area generates and plow it back into improvements. The improvements should snowball until the area can stand on its own. The CRA funding mechanism sunsets after a period of time.
The catch is that this new property-tax money would have otherwise gone to county, city and other local government entities. Since Volusia County’s budget has been tight of late, some County Council members have been examining changing the county’s CRA policy.
The CRA debate should take into account the fact that some West Volusia cities are only now beginning to propose CRAs. It is worth considering giving worthy CRA proposals from Deltona and Orange City the same deal that Daytona Beach and South Daytona got, regardless of new policy.