Council continues discussion on ECHO and Volusia Forever ballot questions

Posted On: March 4, 2020

After two hours of discussion Tuesday, the Volusia County Council moved one step closer to giving voters the opportunity to decide if they want to renew the tax-supported ECHO and Volusia Forever programs for another 20 years.

At stake is the future of the twin programs that were approved by voters in 2000 to fund recreational facilities and land preservation efforts in Volusia County. Both are scheduled to sunset at the end of the budget year.

The ECHO program provides grant funds to finance acquisition, restoration, construction or improvement of facilities for environmental, cultural, historical and outdoor recreational purposes. The Volusia Forever program finances the acquisition and improvement of thousands of acres of environmentally sensitive, water resource protection and outdoor recreation lands that are being managed by the county as conservation stewards in perpetuity.

The council made one threshold decision on Tuesday regarding Volusia Forever. When it went before voters in 2000, the ballot language authorized the issuance of up to $40 million in bonds to finance the program. On Tuesday, the council directed Interim County Attorney Mike Dyer to bring back a ballot resolution raising the bond amount to $60 million. If voters approve, the bond enables the county to borrow the money up-front for projects instead of waiting for the taxes to be collected. The debt would then be paid off from the proceeds of the Volusia Forever property taxes the county collects to fund the program. Officials said the proposed bond increase from $40 million to $60 million is a recognition of the impact of inflation and the increasing project costs since the program started 20 years ago. Both ECHO and Volusia Forever are funded with small property taxes of up to up to two-tenths of a mill each. The council is tentatively scheduled to take up the ballot language for the twin referendum questions in April. To ensure fiscal transparency in the programs, the council has directed the county’s internal auditor to conduct a financial review of ECHO and Volusia Forever. The audit is expected to be completed in May.

“The important thing is to get the resolution moving forward, as far as I’m concerned, to get it on the ballot,” said Council member Billie Wheeler. “But the implementation, we need to hear from the citizens on this.”

If voters renew the programs, the council will have to adopt implementing resolutions with program rules. That’s where the council is expected to resolve some key issues, such as whether to change the ECHO formula for projects to meet the current matching funds requirement, whether to allow ECHO funds to be used for maintenance on projects and whether to increase the percentage of Volusia Forever funds that are set aside for management of the preservation lands acquired through the program. The land management costs have been exceeding the amount of the current set-aside – 10% of the funds – and the county has supplemented the expense with general fund revenues.

Council member Ben Johnson said he strongly supports allowing ECHO funds to be used for maintenance costs to make sure projects funded by the program are kept up in good shape for the public’s use.

“We need to make sure that we’re keeping it up so that we can keep the jewel shiny,” said Johnson.

Council members are facing an Aug. 4 deadline if they want to get the issues on the Nov. 3 ballot. On Tuesday, though, County Chair Ed Kelley assured residents that no final decisions were being made and that they’ll have plenty more opportunities to express their opinion.