This afternoon (Tuesday) the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency will hold its second and final budget hearing for the new fiscal year, which starts October 1st.
The agency receives funds via a one-cent sales tax surcharge, which voters re-upped in 2014. But many community members say they’re increasingly frustrated with how that money is spent.
On Thursday the Blueprint board – composed of all the city and county commissioners – voted 6-5 to spend $1.8 million on a controversial project– SOMO Walls on South Monroe Street.
During the meeting, which focused mainly on the budget, Leon County Commissioner Brian Welch said the board’s process for allocating its funds had become chaotic.
“I have said since May when we first kicked over this can of worms, this Pandora’s Box with the Northeast Park, that this is undermining this entire tax what we are doing," Welch said. "The chaos that we are experiencing right now. And I think that’s a fair assessment. I think everybody would agree with that.”
Welch is talking about a planned park on Tallahassee’s Northeast side that became controversial after officials estimated it would cost $18 million dollars. In the end, the board agreed to earmark $12 million for the project.
Blueprint has also faced public ire for its $20 million allocation for repairs to Doak Campbell Stadium last year.
Critics say the tax is supposed to be used for infrastructure and economic development. They don’t think spending money on a football stadium or the distillery at SOMO Walls fit that mold. Blueprint has funded hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of projects—including Cascades Park and the expansion of Capital Circle.
