The Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) held its first joint meeting with the Newberry City Commission from the city’s new City Hall on Monday and discussed property tax cuts, Newberry’s role in the Forward Focus initiative and AgFoodTech updates. 

As the BOCC has done in its other joint meetings with Alachua County municipalities, staff presented potential impacts to the city and county if the state’s proposal to eliminate property taxes is approved. Voters will see the constitutional amendment on ballots in November. 

Mayor Tim Marden said the removal would set Newberry back $2.2 to $2.5 million, around 20% of the city’s general fund budget.  

County Manager Michele Lieberman said the county’s budget would drop to a negative $24 million, leaving them with $21 million to fund mandatory services, such as Medicaid, the medical examiner, animal resources and constitutional officers like the supervisor of elections and sheriff. 

She said residents aren’t going to stop paying property taxes, as communicated by advocates of the bill, because schools will still be funded by residents’ taxes. Lieberman said people wanting the University of Florida (UF) to be a taxable institution should alternatively consider the advantages the school brings beyond what a tax could. 

“Alachua County would not be Alachua County if we did not have the university and the benefits that the university provides to our community in the way of economic development and bringing people here,” she said. 

Lieberman also said voters in smaller counties like Alachua County may not necessarily get to determine whether the property tax bill passes or fails because the 60% majority needed could be achieved by eight to nine of the more populated counties in South Florida. 

BOCC Chair Ken Cornell said the county would make the decisions it needed for financial stability if and when the time comes to eliminate property taxes. 

“We’ve got good reserves. They’re over $50 million right now, and hopefully we won’t have to dig into them,” Cornell said. “But if we do, we do, we’ll figure it out.” 

Newberry also presented updates on its growing agricultural technology industry, including the F-300 AgFoodTech Innovation Park and new greenhouses.  

Innovation Park consultant Kamal Latham shared upcoming projects at the park’s startup incubator that aims to develop ideas for ag-related technologies into tangible products. The incubator has worked with UF and Santa Fe College students, as well as researchers and entrepreneurs from across the world. A $5.6 million jobs growth grant will help build infrastructure as the park grows. 

Staff announced Harvest Singularity will break ground this month on the first of two $66 million, 325,000-square-foot hydroponic greenhouses in the park, which is adjacent to the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension Alachua County office. 

Each greenhouse will create 90 jobs and produce up to three tons of chemical-free leafy greens every day—primarily for wholesale and commercial food retailers. The groundbreaking will take place at 10 a.m. on May 26. 

BOCC Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler congratulated Newberry on attracting the lucrative developments while staying true to the city’s agricultural character. She encouraged the city to take advantage of the county’s at-large districts by leveraging their success to help smaller municipalities. 

Wheeler suggested partnering with Hawthorne as it seeks to secure a Santa Fe College satellite campus by sharing expertise and information Newberry has gathered through its own growth. 

County staff said more grant opportunities could be brought to the western side of the county, as it shares insights from the three-phase Forward Focus initiative currently focused on East Gainesville areas like Hawthorne. 

“Some of [the smaller cities] could really use a little help. And you guys got it going on here, and obviously know how to help,” Wheeler said. “So I would encourage you to do that so that we can all have the same success as you’re seeing here in Newberry.” 

Editor’s note: This story was underwritten by a grant from the Rural Reporting Initiative at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida.