After a brief and precedent-breaking Christian prayer by its mayor, Dewey Dew, the Town of Marineland this evening approved on first reading its tax rate for the coming fiscal year–the highest in the county, as it has been for years–and its $192,252 budget. There are no homeowners in town.
The town’s two commissioners, Dew and Jessica Finch, who also happen to be two of the town’s three residents, voted for the resolution. The town’s third resident, Joseph Pinder, who was elected to the commission earlier this month, was in the audience, not yet sworn in. (He was elected by two votes out of two cast.)
Finch wanted him to be seated before the budget hearing as a “fair and common-sense approach,” since he would be part of the second hearing, and was to be sworn in during the regular meeting this evening, after the budget hearing. He was not so seated.
The town’s property tax rate will remain at $10 per $1,000 in taxable value, as it has been year after year. It is the highest tax rate permissible by state law. The total tax rate, when other local governments’ taxes are included, brings Marineland’s rate to over $24 per $1,000 in taxable value. Comparatively, a Palm Coast homeowner pays a rate of a little over $18. It’s almost $22 in Bunnell, near $20 in Flagler Beach, and about $14 in unincorporated Flagler County.
The majority of the budget–$132,752–is drawn from property taxes. Most of that is generated by the handful of private properties in town, all but a couple owned by Atlanta-based developer Jim Jacoby’s JDI Marineland. Jacoby has been trying to sell most of his properties in town.
Flagler County and state agencies are studying the potential purchase of four of his properties. Hugh Darley of Providence Island Ventures, a Ft. Lauderdale-based firm established in 2023, told the town commission tonight that his firm will be bidding on the bankrupt Marineland Dolphin Adventure, and will be seeking to buy up to 500 acres in town–Jacoby’s lands included–in a plan to return Marineland into a 1960s-like tourist destination.
The town’s budget also relies on $18,000 in revenue from the municipal marina, and $22,500 in utility franchise fees. Minor revenue sources like rental income and interest income account for the rest. The town commission will approve the budget and tax rate at a final hearing on Sept. 29.
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