Grappling with Shrinking Tax Base and Dissolution, Marineland Will Look to Soak Marina for More Dollars

Marineland is facing an existential crisis. Its already limited revenue is shrinking. It may not have enough money to maintain itself as a town, raising the possibility of dissolution. The possibility is underscored by the non-profit acquisition of Marineland Dolphin Adventure, pulling it and $44,000 from the tax rolls, a figure that represents a third of the town’s property tax revenue. 

If and when the dolphin attraction applies for nonprofit status early next year, it won’t affect revenue for 2026. But it will affect revenue starting in the following fiscal year in October 2026. The business has been in arrears with its current taxes. (See: “Marineland Will Lose a Third of Its Property Tax Revenue When Dolphin Attraction Is Purchased by Nonprofit.”)

The town is looking to its marina as a potential savior, but that would require renegotiating a contract with the privately run entity. 

The commission discussed the issue last Thursday after Marineland Town Commissioner Jessica Finch updated her colleagues on the town’s website. She’s been working toward moving the town’s web hosting to CivicPlus, the same organization that hosts Flagler Beach’s site and those of hundreds of other local governments. The current website was down for several days this month, and its accessibility has been an issue. Visitors can’t find agendas, archives or other basic information. 

“Everything is moving forward,” Finch said. The contract will be around $4,400 the first year, rising slightly in subsequent years, and will be marginally more than current website costs. 

Mark Simpson, the town’s financial consultant, had concerns, if not exactly with CivicPlus. “My concern is the town, and losing the attraction and the ad valorem tax” he said, referring to property tax revenue. “Do we really want to invest time and money if in two or three years we don’t have any revenue? It wasn’t a concern about CivicPlus at all. It was the town’s sustainability financially.”

Finch had actually asked for that very issue to be added to the agenda for discussion last Thursday. It was not. The commission discussed it anyway. “It’s something that should be on all of our radars,” she said. 

The town is looking for additional revenue. One avenue, Finch said, might be renegotiating the contract with the marina in town. The marina pays Marineland $18,000 a year. The contract has not been renegotiated for several years. “It could be we might have to do something like that,” Mayor Buddy Pinder said. “We’ve got to have the funds to keep the city going.”

The town can request to renegotiate the contract with the marina, Town Attorney Dennis Bayer said, but he cautioned that the marina operated at a loss for several years, and that the contract was based on making it a viable business. (The town has not posted the contract to its website.) 

There’s also a matter of contract law that can’t be circumvented. “I don’t know that exigent financial circumstances on the part of the town warrant renegotiating a document that both parties have signed,” Bayer said. 

Another caveat: renegotiating the contract may not produce enough revenue to offset the $44,000 in lost revenue. 

Then there is the matter of the other private properties in town. They all belong to JDI, the Jim Jacoby-owned company. Jacoby has been talking with various concerns about selling the properties, including Flagler County and the state of Florida, which are interested in converting the acreage to conservation. That would also pull the acreage off the tax rolls, and almost unquestionably end the town’s viability as such. (See: “Flagler County Eyes Land Buy As Jacoby’s JDI Seeks to Offload 35 Acres Previously Slated for Development in Marineland.”)

The town also has a community redevelopment agency, or CRA, essentially an enterprise zone (like Palm Coast’s Town Center or downtown Flagler Beach). A CRA is intended to revitalize an urban zone. It redirects a significant portion of that zone’s property taxes to the CRA for revitalization purposes. The CRA recorded $72,000 in expenses in the budget year that ended last September. County government contributes a portion of that sum. 

If the town cannot meet its bills, it ceases to exist and “goes to Flagler County,” Bayer said, as happened with Hastings in St. Johns County. Hastings dissolved in 2018 after 136 of its residents voted to incorporate with the county (29 voted against in what was a town of 600 people). Hastings had heavy debts. 

Marineland’s situation is so precarious that town staffers talked about donations to the town. “That’s a normal thing,” Town Planner Janice Fleet said, noting that smaller towns will get donations from various sources, but only to run specific events, not to fund operational expenses. 

“A town can’t run just on periodic fundraisers and parties,” Finch said. “The two options are increased ad valorem taxes, which we’re not going to raise the millage rate, and we can’t raise them anymore.” JDI’s properties could generate more revenue by increasing in value, though that would require infrastructure improvements on JDI properties (such as the water plant). The only other asset is the marina. “We are being kind of hamstrung by a contract that limits us actually, when it seems like the marina is actually making money, which I’m all for private enterprise, but it is on the town’s property.” 

Town commissioners agreed to have a face-to-face meeting with the marina leaseholder at a subsequent meeting.