Indian River Lagoon sales tax panel seeks to address its disconnect with public
by Dave Berman — May 11, 2018
The advisory committee tasked with tracking spending of a special lagoon sales tax is trying to strike a balance between complicated science and more easily understandable information. And to connect better with the public.
At the Save Our Indian River Lagoon Citizen Oversight Committee’s most recent meeting, members questioned how the public could get a gist of how the tax money is being spent without having an advanced academic degree in biology or chemistry.
Brevard County voters in 2016 approved collection of a half-percent sales tax for 10 years, with the revenue targeted for a range of projects designed to help improve the condition of the Indian River Lagoon.
Nearly $44 million was collected from the sales tax during 2017, compared with the initial estimate that $34 million would be raised. In all, the latest estimates project that the special lagoon sales tax will raise $486 million over a 10-year period.
During its meeting, the panel heard several scientific-focused presentations, including one on monitoring groundwater pollution. It was important stuff. But it also may be beyond the level of easy-to-understand for some of the committee members without a science background. And certainly beyond the grasp of the average Brevard County resident.
The committee makes recommendations to the County Commission on how the sales tax money should be spent.
Committee member John Byron said he believes that, whenever someone makes an “information-laden” presentation to the committee in the future, the presenter needs to include an “elevator speech” — a simple summary that can be delivered in a short amount of time.
“I think that’s part of the deliverables in all future studies,” said Byron, who is a retired commanding officer for the Naval Ordnance Test Unit at Cape Canaveral. “Give us 600 words, Give us an elevator speech. Give us five bullets that matter.”
He wants there to be “a citizens’ report” that meets two criteria — “it’s short and it’s clear.”
Byron said the standard for every future presentation should include “what this presentation means to the future of the lagoon in layman terms.”
Other committee members suggested translating the scientific reports to simple memes, infographics, bullet points or short videos that could be disseminated on social media.
“It’s financially — I guess ‘stupid’ is the only word that comes to my mind right now — to move forward with such dollar amounts that we’re using here on projects that may not work. It would be terrible to do that,” said Barker, who is the city manager in Satellite Beach. “So we have to monitor. So $1 million a year is a small price to pay to do this. We have to do this.”
Durkee is president the Florida Sport Fishing Association and does consulting work for health care-related business ventures.
Barker told committee members that, with the criticism of the plan on social media, “I feel like I spend my entire weekend defending the plan’s honor. I think there’s a group of people that are purposely” spreading misinformation.
“We still have to give the truth to the community,” Barker said. “And I think that would be helpful if we had that ammo.”
Byron said he is concerned about the disconnect with the public.
“We have a clear measure that we are not communicating effectively the basic information that needs to get out there, and that’s something we need to work on,” Byron said. “And it’s not for scientists and technicians to figure out how to get it out there. It’s for communicators, public relations types, people in marketing, etc.”
Source: Florida Today