Giallombardo proposes bill to sunset CRAs
A state bill that could sunset Community Redevelopment Agencies was discussed at Cape Coral City Council’s workshop Wednesday.
State Rep. Mike Giallombardo filed HB991 on Feb. 24.
The proposed legislation provides “for the termination of community redevelopment agencies on a specified date, removing an exception, prohibiting community redevelopment agencies from performing certain actions on or after a specified date, revising provisions relating to any outstanding bonds of a community redevelopment agency, prohibiting the creation of community redevelopment agencies on or after a specified date, authorizing existing agencies to continue to operate, providing an effective date.”
According to the bill “a community redevelopment agency in existence on July 1, 2025, shall terminate on the expiration date provided in the agency’s charter on July 1, 2025, or on Sept. 30, 2045, whichever is earlier.”
As far as outstanding bonds as of July 1, 2025 “that do not mature until after the termination date of the agency, or Sept. 30, 2045, whichever is earlier, remains in existence until the date the bonds mature.”
An agency could not be created on or after July 1, 2025.
Cape Coral has such an agency, the South Cape Community Development Agency, and Cape Coral City Council acts as its governing commission. It is funded with tax increment financing, or TIF funds. TIF revenue is basically the amount between baseline property tax revenue and revenue from increased valuation after development of the property. The “increment” is used by the CRA for other projects or rebated to a developer for projects that enhance the district.
City Manager Mike Ilczyszyn said he spoke with Giallombardo on the bill and, as of Wednesday, there was no Senate companion bill. He said what he understands is that they are looking at some of the CRAs and what they are doing with funding.
Ilczyszyn said meaningful reform and change could come in the form of using the tax dollars that fund CRAs solely for infrastructure, private development to make projects work and eliminating things such as funding for special events.
He said he will give Giallombardo a list of ideas from the Cape that they use to refocus the basics.
“In our discussion, I let him know that in the Cape we use our money for projects — The Cove, parking garages, Bimini project, streetscape and Bimini East and how we are utilizing TIF money to take down buildings and put property back out,” Ilczyszyn said. “He was open to some ideas to send to him.”
He said the city receives TIF dollars from Lee County for the South Cape CRA.
“We would lose the direct funding from the county and hurt ability to gain momentum in the CRA,” Ilczyszyn said.
Mayor John Gunter said he also spoke with Giallombardo and told him that they have to make sure they are spending tax dollars appropriately — infrastructure, roads, bringing in private development. He said having trolley events and different types of nonprofits having events – is all well and good, but it should be for roads and sidewalks.
“There are other municipalities that are even worse than what we are spending dollars on and getting out of hand,” Gunter said. “We are partly to blame. We can do a better job than what we are doing.”
Ilczyszyn said there might be some other opportunities for a revision to the language that will refocus the tax dollars to the original purpose of the CRA, which was to correct and prevent blight in the Cape’s original downtown.
Giallombardo could not be reached for comment by press time.
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