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SEMINOLE CARES SUMMARY

On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, known as the CARES Act, was signed into law. The Act created the Coronavirus Relief Fund, which provides $150 billion in assistance for state and local governments for disbursement in communities to support small businesses, individuals, and community resources affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19.

Money orders can be mailed, but must be include a completed Money Order Deposit Form. Mail to the following address: Mail to the following address: Secure Deposits – Seminole County PO BOX 12486 St Louis, Missouri 63132. By Office: 407-323-8990: By Fax: 407-330-0146: By Email: info@seminolemoneytree.com: Address: Seminole Moneytree, Inc. 2882 W Lake Mary Blvd Lake Mary, FL 32746. The Seminole Tribe of Florida is a federally recognized Seminole tribe based in the U.S. State of Florida.Together with the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, it is one of three federally recognized Seminole entities.It received that status in 1957; today it has six Indian reservations in Florida. In 1975, the Tribe established tax-free smoke shops.

The State of Florida received $8.32 billion in CARES Act funding. Florida counties with a population of at least 500,000 received assistance directly from the United States Treasury Department. Florida local governments with populations less than 500,000, including Seminole County and 54 other Florida counties, received their CARES disbursements through the State of Florida’s Department of Emergency Management.

Seminole County was allocated $82,328,650 in CARES funds and received an initial disbursement of $20,582,500 from the State on July 1, 2020. A second disbursement of $16,466,000 was transmitted in September.

Pursuant to the U.S. Treasury, any use of CARES Act funding had to comply with the following criteria:

• Expenditures had to be due to the COVID-19 public health emergency;
• Expenditures could not have been included in any local government or not-for-profit entity’s budget as of March 27, 2020; and
• Expenditures had to occur during the period of March 1, 2020 – December 30, 2020.

At its June 23, 2020 meeting, the Board of County Commissioners authorized the County’s $82.3 million COVID-19 relief and financial assistance plan. The plan was executed by staff over the following six months, with the program concluding on December 31, 2020. The Board designated funding support to five key areas: small business grants; individual assistance grants; not-for-profits grants; public health, safety and service support; and special economic recovery initiatives.

Seminole CARES is the largest aid program in the County’s history, providing grants to keep small businesses afloat, help residents stay in their homes, and assist not-for-profit agencies with meeting the increased demands for vital services. In less than six months, with no previous administrative infrastructure in place, County staff endeavored to manage the unprecedented task of quickly distributing millions of dollars in relief while navigating stringent and evolving federal rules that complicated the process.

In order to put CARES Act monies in the hands of the people that needed it most, Seminole County contracted with Ernst & Young to implement the Seminole CARES Grant Portal through which small business and individual assistance applicants could request funding. The County coordinated with its seven cities, five Constitutional Officers, and 45 not-for-profit organizations to ensure funding was available to support social distancing mitigation efforts, technology needs, and other initiatives directly related to alleviating the spread and impacts of COVID-19. Funds were provided to Seminole County Public Schools to allow for implementation of additional protective measures and remote technologies for the students and faculty. With Central Florida leading the state in unemployment due to hospitality industry impacts, a marketing campaign was launched to reinvigorate tourism in the region. Funds were also committed to Seminole State College for workforce training initiatives.

Concerned about the growing costs of widening roads, building new sidewalks and expanding recreational trails in fast-growing areas of the county, Seminole plans to enact a “mobility fee” that would charge developers for each new house or store to help offset the construction costs of those public pathways.

The new fee would replace the county’s current road impact fee, which has not been modified since 1995, and county officials call “sorely outdated.”

Seminole calculates that a new mobility fee could raise as much as $6.5 million annually to help pay for an estimated $52 million in construction of streets, sidewalks and bicycle pathways every year. The county’s current road impact fee raised about $2.64 million last fiscal year, according to county budget documents. And the new mobility can be used to build new trails and sidewalks, whereas the current road impact fee can only be used for new roads.

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“Growth should pay for itself, and our citizens shouldn’t be burdened by more taxes to pay for new growth,” commission Chairman Lee Constantine said. “I feel very strongly about that.”

But Lee Steinhauer, director of government affairs for the Greater Orlando Builders Association and the Apartment Association of Greater Orlando, said his organizations are concerned about the sudden increase in the fees that Seminole is proposing. He suggest a more measured approach.

“We understand that they [Seminole] haven’t increased their fees since the mid 1990s,” he said Thursday. “But the percentage increases are extremely significant. And for that reason, we would like to see a more gradual implementation of those fees as opposed of getting hit with a huge increase right up front. Especially when we have uncertain economic conditions with the pandemic.”

Under the current road impact fee, a builder generally pays $705 for a new single-family home in the county’s urban areas and $1,185 in the rural area. One recommendation for the new mobility fees is to raise those rates to $2,112 in the urban areas and $9,597 in the rural area.

For a new retail shopping center greater than 20,000 square feet, a builder’s mobility fee would stay at about $2,962 in some core urban areas. But it would rise from $4,982 to $10,570 in rural areas, according to a recommendation.

Steinhauer pointed out that developers and builders typically pass on to buyers the cost of impact fees in the price a new home or commercial building. Higher impact fees in rural areas will mean the costs of homes there will be higher.

Deputy County Manager Tricia Johnson explained the higher rural fees are based on distances traveled by residents. A resident in a rural area would have to travel farther — and have a greater impact on county roads — than a resident in an urban area where the wider roads are already in place.

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“For example, if you’re putting in a pizza place in a rural area, residents are driving longer than if it’s in an urban area,” she said.

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The county’s current road impact fees need to be updated to apply modern methods of determining the actual current costs of growth’s impact on the county’s roads, sidewalks and trails, Johnson said.

“It’s been a significant amount of time since we updated [road impact fees],” she said. “We really just need a practical and legal update in order to capture the demands” to the county’s roads.

Seminole’s planning and zoning commission, a county advisory board, is scheduled on Feb. 3 to review the mobility fee structures and issue a recommendation. County commissioners are then scheduled on Feb. 23 to discuss the mobility fees and likely vote on new mobility fees. If approved, the new fees would go into effect on April 27.

Johnson cautioned, however, that Seminole is only looking at recommendations, and the proposed new mobility fees could change.

The fees would apply to new residential and commercial construction within unincorporated Seminole and cities, except Altamonte Springs, which has its own mobility fees.

According to state law, revenues from the mobility fees cannot be used to fund the operations or maintenance of mass transit, such as the SunRail commuter train or Lynx bus system.

Steinhauer said builders should not pick up so much of the costs of building new roads and transportation infrastructure.

“The industry feels like they’re bearing the burden of the costs of infrastructure improvements in a disproportionate way when there are other funding sources,” he said. “We do think that the county should look at across the board funding sources, rather than putting the burden on the building industry.”

But Commissioner Bob Dallari said that many of the county’s rural areas do not have the infrastructure in place to accommodate large new subdivisions or shopping centers. Therefore, existing residents would end up picking up the tab when a new housing development comes in with additional residents using the county’s roads, sidewalks and multipurpose trails.

“We need to make sure that all new growth pays for their fair share,” he said.