Brevard County commissioners plan to put community redevelopment agencies and the rules that govern them under the microscope at a workshop in April.
Commissioners on Tuesday night discussed CRAs for about 40 minutes, and voted unanimously to schedule the workshop for an even more intense discussion of CRAs, starting at 1 p.m. April 13.
CRAs have been a controversial issue in Brevard County for years. That’s because they use property tax money generated by rising property values in a particular geographic area for projects in that area, rather than the money being available for use countywide.
Commission Chairman Curt Smith and Commissioner John Tobia both submitted resolutions for Tuesday’s meeting to tighten the rules on CRAs. Smith’s proposal dealt mainly with rules for dissolving CRAs that are more than 30 years old or have no existing debt. Tobia’s proposal dealt with putting a halt to creation of new CRAs that would use county tax revenue.
Both Smith and Tobia said their resolutions were designed to help free up more money to address the backlog of needed road repair projects in the county.
In his report to commissioners, Smith said Brevard County has a $560.89 million backlog of unfunded transportation projects.
To read the full article, click here.