Anna Maria commissioners authorized a contract Jan. 26 for an engineering and consulting firm to study development of an occupancy-based tax assessment.
Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy has advocated the fee, which would be based on the number of people living in a household, as a solution to recoup the city’s tourism and vacation rental-related costs.
The city previously failed in its attempts to negotiate a greater share of Manatee County tax revenue based on population numbers that would include vacation home residents.
Murphy announced Dec. 8, 2016, that the city would partner with Burton & Associates, a St. Augustine-based planning consulting firm, to initiate a study on the special assessment.
However, before the contract was presented to the commission, Burton & Associates was acquired by consulting firm Stantec, a Canadian-based company with an office in Lakewood Ranch that provides engineering, consulting and design services to public and private clients, including the planning for the Lakewood Ranch development.
Under the contract, which commissioners unanimously approved Jan. 26, Stantec will evaluate the feasibility of a special assessment, including identifying the costs associated with vacation rental visitors, and how an assessment would impact the city budget.
Murphy is preparing cost assessments for short-, medium- and long-term projects in the city’s 10-year plan, which he will provide to Stantec for its study calculations.
The contract calls for Stantec to earn a maximum of $34,838. The project is estimated to require about 200 hours of work and the contract states that it will take 90 days to complete.
City attorney Becky Vose said Jan. 26 that she was not successful in finding an example of a similar special assessment enacted in another municipality.
The closest were groups of vacation rental owners in California cities who requested specific services in exchange for special assessment fees. “There’s nothing quite like this,” Vose said of the mayor’s proposal.
Stantec was authorized to begin the study upon approval of the agreement.