Would You Favor a Half-Cent Sales Tax Referendum for Beach Protection? Local Governments Consider It.

Representatives of Palm Coast, Flagler Beach, Bunnell and the county agreed at a joint meeting of local governments to consider the possibility of adding a referendum to the November 2026 ballot to raise the sales tax by half a cent and use some of the revenue to pay for beach protection. 

Flagler Beach and Beverly Beach would have preferred–and had supported–a County Commission increase in the sales tax rather than a referendum, which will face difficulties at the ballot box. But they’ll support it, having no other choice. 

Palm Coast appears to have the support. County Chair Andy Dance is in full support. Bunnell equivocated, as did County Commissioner Leann Penington. 

“It has not been decided yet. That discussion still has to be made,” Dance said. But he encouraged his colleagues to have that discussion, since the County Commission a few weeks ago stumbled all over the comprehensive beach protection plan County Administrator Heidi Petito had proposed. 

That plan hinged on the County Commission voting in an increase in the sales tax. It needed a majority of four of its five commissioners to succeed. Three were opposed. The plan failed, leaving the county and its cities without a long-term plan, and one more year of beach band-aids as erosion deteriorates the shoreline further. 

Flagler County’s critically eroded beaches now stretch over 10.3 miles, up from 8 miles, the county just learned from the Department of Environmental Protection. The better news is that with that extension, the county is eligible for 50-50 cost shares with state aid. The areas added to the “critically eroded” category are north of Varn Park, and a small segment in Marineland. 

The county is spending $8.2 million for beach protection next year. It includes money from the general fund, drawn from property tax revenue, from the sales tax, and from tourism sales surtax revenue. 

The county has not resolved its long-term beach management funding problem–neither the necessary ongoing reconstruction of the beach, nor the maintenance of the beach, which calls for accumulating money year after year so that when the next renourishment is due, the county can pay its share. At least $12 million a year will be needed for that.

“We really don’t have an ongoing revenue stream that’s going to be able to do this,” Petito said.

Special taxing districts will not carry that load, even with contributions from the general fund and from tourism dollars. An additional half-cent sales tax would generate between $7 million and $8 million a year, compared with less than $2 million from a special taxing district.  

With the County Commission unable to agree to a sales tax, that leaves a referendum as an option, leaving it to voters to decide the question on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot. 

It would need a unified front among local governments, Dance said. “It definitely is political at that point, as we approach an election season,” he said. Local governments would also have to hurry to ensure that the referendum makes it on the ballot. 

Palm Coast City Council member Ty Miller, basing his analysis on previous discussions, said the council would support sending the issue to a referendum. Mayor Mike Norris would support it, too, he said, but with caveats. 

“If you want to try it on referendum, chairman, that’s completely up to you,” Norris told Dance. “I think you know how that’s going to work out.” Meaning that a referendum would very likely fail, because the bulk of the vote would be Palm Coast, and another segment would be West Flagler. 

Based on pronouncements before local governments, neither block has tended to voice support for an additional tax for beach protection. But the new sales tax revenue would not be exclusively appropriated to the beach. As previously configured, when the County Commission was considering approving it by vote, Palm Coast and Bunnell would keep half the revenue generated. For Palm Coast, that would be nearly $3 million to start, rising beyond that in future years. The city could use that new revenue without strings other than those it would attach to the ballot language. For example, it could tell voters that the money would be spent on infrastructure such as roads–a crying need in Palm Coast. 

“As you do referendums, it becomes having to present the data, public meetings, lots of information, a lot of transparency on where it’s going and how it’ll be backed up,” Dance said. Dance was gently pushing back against Norris’s bleaker assessment because Dance can take credit for playing a key role in winning a half-cent referendum for the school district when he was on the School Board. Dance advocated and campaigned in the streets for weeks. 

“Yes, it’s an uphill battle. I’m not going to deny that,” Dance said. “The best you can do is give the information to the residents and let them decide.” 

“People will be opposed to any tax increase,” Norris said, “and I think they’re looking for accountability and safeguards that the money is going to be specifically designated and used for that.” But Norris said he would help push for the referendum, since he supports saving the beaches. He says Palm Coast residents will want “very tight accountability.” 

Norris also noted that Palm Coast is likely to have its own charter amendment proposals on the same ballot, so “it’s going to be a long ballot,” he said. 

Bunnell Mayor Catherine Robinson wasn’t even keen on discussing it with her board. “I don’t know that I should go back and talk to my board about this meeting and how this may be on the table, if really and truly it hasn’t been decided yet,” she said.

It wasn’t a question of deciding it just yet: Dance wanted to know whether there was support for a referendum from local governments before even moving to deciding whether to have one. But to get that sense, every representative at Wednesday’s meeting would have to bring it back to his or her board rather than act as a gatekeeper. 

The whole point of the joint meeting is “to share ideas,” Dance said, so issues are talked about before votes take other governments by surprise. “It’s helpful to have the discussion. I don’t want everybody to say, well, they haven’t voted, so this is not important yet, or just put it to the side, because we still need your input.”

County Commissioner Leann Pennington, prefacing her remarks as “Debbie Downer,” said both the County Commission and the City Council will have new members by November 2026. Palm Coast is certain to have three new members–a majority. The County Commission will have at least one new member. Pennington is running for reelection. She raised the possibility that local boards could rewrite whatever joint agreements define the distribution of revenue from the sales tax. That’s a possibility, though ballot language is likely to narrow down definitions and distributions.