Update: There have been a few new developments since I first wrote this page. Here’s a link to that discussion. The bottom line is still about the same though.
The Key Largo Wastewater Treatment District Board asked their accounting firm to prepare a wastewater funding analysis. The report verifies that Key Largo citizens are unjustifiably paying $26 million more for their sewer system than other taxpayers in the unincorporated area.
Here are a few pertinent facts:
- Key Largo is an unincorporated area just like Cudjoe Key, Big Pine, Big Coppitt or Duck Key.
- As such, it does not receive proceeds from the infrastructure sales tax directly. It must depend on Monroe County to distribute the sales tax in a fair and responsible way.
- The Key Largo project serves about the same number of EDU’s as the other projects in the unincorporated area combined.
- The Key Largo project cost substantially less per EDU than the other projects – about $5000 less per EDU.
- Despite this, Key Largo citizens contribute almost $1,900 more per EDU than citizens in the other unincorporated areas. That comes to a total of $26 million.
- This is primarily because of a huge funding imbalance. Key Largo received $100 million less from the infrastructure sales tax.
Here’s a summary table from the report.
FUNDING ANALYSIS – D1 11-12-14_table
The entire report is included here.
The Real Poop 