On Tuesday, Chairman of the Infrastructure Surtax Committee, Matt Turpin, gave the Board of County Commissioners a report on the overall achievements of the half-cent sales tax since it began in 2019.

• 26 active projects
• 9 are in the design process
• 8 completed projects
• 5 are under construction
• 2 are in the negotiation phase

“Projects are moving at a great pace thanks to county staff being in a position to have these ongoing projects planned out and largely by collecting more funds in half-cent sales tax than originally budgeted,” said Turpin. “Additional needed projects are being added to the needs list as a result of exceeding collections expectations.”

As a result of the additional collections, the Committee is able to move projects up and start projects sooner than later. Projects that the Committee thought they would get to in year seven, they have been able to address in year four, which is this current year.

For 2021, the county has collected over $20 million in sales tax revenue. When the Half-Cent Surtax was first starting out, annual collections were estimated to be around $12 million per year.

• Just in fiscal year 2021, the county has spent a little under $11.2 million with over $93,000 collected in interest income.

Since inception, through September 30th, 2021, Okaloosa has collected over $48 million in half-cent sales tax, while spending around $17 million on projects.

Stats for Fiscal Year Ended 9/30/2021

• $20,076,386 Collected – Original Estimate was $12M
• $93,387 – Interest Income
• $11,156,090 – Funds Spent
• Statistics from Beginning to Year Ended 9/30/2021
  • $48,082,422 – Collected by the County
  • $342,026 – Interest Income
  • $16,911,145 – Funds Spent
  • $25,953,350 – Total Funds Spent and Encumbered (Encumbered – funds for approved projects not yet spent).
  • $22,471,097 – Funds collected yet to be spent that will be used for Infrastructure, Public Safety and Stormwater Projects.

“This is a sales tax that everybody that makes a purchase in Okaloosa county pays.”

Looking back at each month’s collections, Turpin says that (aside from parts of 2020) Okaloosa had “banner month after banner month” because people were in Okaloosa county that didn’t live here.

“You can see our collections in non-peak seasons, like November through February, and our collections are going to be somewhere between $500k to $600k per month in just half-cent sales tax,” explained Turpin. “Outside of those months, March through October, our collections would double, if not triple in revenue.”

Turpin says that in his opinion, this goes to show that the majority of the half-cent sales-tax is paid by visitors, not by the residents.

Moving forward, one big ticket items that the county is excited about is the Countywide first-responders communication system that is funded by the sales-tax.

• 12 communication towers will be added across the county that will allow all first responders across Okaloosa to be on the same communication system.

“That will be a game changer for first responders in our county,” said Turpin. “First responders cannot communicate in concrete condominium buildings. They have to use their cell phones to communicate. Now, everybody’s going to be on the same system, they can communicate and it will make this more efficient.”

Other big ticket items include the Crestview Bypass, improved stormwater infrastructure along Highway 98, in addition to some much needed sidewalks on Old Bethel Road in Crestview.

One-third, One-third, One-third

The breakdown of the tax is as follows:

• One third goes to the stormwater
• One third goes to public safety
• One third goes to infrastructure

With stormwater, Turpin says that those projects take a little longer because of the many departments involved, particularly if it’s a state road or in some cases, a federal road.

“The due diligence on those projects take longer than a county road or something for the Sheriff’s Department,” added Turpin. “We will see over the next few years, more storm water projects because the foundation has been laid to move forward on those projects.”

For more information on the projects, see here.