A Better Buried Power Lines Plan

Come November, Longboat Key voters will be asked to approve a referendum ballot, championed by the town commission, to approve a $25,000,000 bond to bury power lines the length of Gulf of Mexico Drive. The referendum does not contain provisions to underground power lines in the "neighborhoods" presently with above ground power lines.

At the beginning of the commission's efforts to underground GMD, and only GMD, while taxing every property owner, I asked that the town spend $5,000 to contact every property owner / real estate taxpayer to measure the sentiments of those who will end up paying the bill to have properties along GMD receive a major property value increase as a result of placing their overhead power lines underground.

Unfortunately the commission was not interested in what the bill-payers wanted. The commission forged ahead with what has become a divisive internecine struggle between those who want everyone to pay for their personal property improvements, while excluding the rest of the island, and those of us who seek an optimal solution, with maximum benefits for the entire community, not just those along GMD and those who already live in developments with underground utilities.

Commissioner Zunz, among others, has proposed an alternative funding scheme that has the entire island undergrounded, for not much more than the commission's limited underground deployment just on GMD.

The Zunz plan has every property owner pay $4,000 to underground the entire island, instead of $2,500 to underground only GMD.  With proper 10 year bond management, the bond + interest total is almost the same amount as the town's proposed 30 year bond for undergrounding just GMD. The voters are voting based in great part on special assessment information appearing on the town's web site. It would be questionable if the commission attempted to alter published property tax liabilities after the election.

The commission has effectively resisted having those who already have underground power lines from paying a penny more than what it costs to do just GMD. Sadly , their unwillingness to listen to alternative views, such as that of Ms. Zunz, most likely will doom further deployment of underground power lines into the neighborhoods, due to inefficient project scale, the volunteer resources required to form a local neighborhood taxing district and sell a small scale bond into an already skittish bond market.

The commissioner's strong opposition to community-wide funding of an island-wide underground project, ignores the current way we fund both beach and canal maintenance.

The really unfortunate aspect of what the commission has been doing is to stifle meaningful community discussion and to limit the voter's choices to their single proposal. The illegal removal of vital taxing information from the town web site is another example of the commission's attempts to control the voting process and prevent the taxpayers from having a complete understanding of the commission's referendum proposal.

That the commission is preventing Longboat taxpayers the right to choose between several plans flies in the face of fair and open government. All the taxpayers have already spent tens of thousands of dollars to have consultants study various funding models for just GMD and/or the entire island. Now that the commission has withdrawn any consideration for an island-wide project, voters are left with an all or nothing choice for only GMD. It is my opinion that we can to a lot better as a community, just as we do when it comes to beach and canal improvements. Voters can reject the current offering by the commission. That will trigger a more comprehensive plan that includes underground power lines for the entire island at a slightly higher cost to taxpayers than the current flawed commission plan.