Representatives from the Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce and other area business organizations appeared before the Okaloosa Board of County Commissioners Tuesday morning to request the renewal of the half-cent infrastructure surtax be placed on the November 2026 election ballot.
- Gordon King, chairman of the Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce and Okaloosa Gas CEO, delivered the presentation on behalf of a coalition that included the Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce, the Destin Area Chamber of Commerce, the Niceville-Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce, One Okaloosa Economic Development Council and the Emerald Coast Association of Realtors.
King asked commissioners to consider a 10-year renewal term that would begin in January 2029 and run through December 2038. Voters originally approved the surtax in 2018.
Since then, King said, the tax has raised more than $136 million and leveraged matching grants totaling more than $279 million. The funds have been used to pave and stabilize more than 200 miles of county roads, complete five major road projects and finish seven environmental and flood reduction projects.
- King also pointed to the newly installed countywide communication system that allows police, fire and EMS services to communicate through a single network, enhancing response times.
“As a business community, we’ve seen the results of what you’ve done,” King told commissioners. “We realize it takes years of planning for the staff to put these projects in place. That’s one of the reasons we’re back here today asking you to renew that tax for those 10 years.”
More than 56% of the surtax revenue has come from tourists visiting Okaloosa County, King said. He added that generating the same amount of revenue through other means would require a 19 percent increase in property taxes.
A citizens oversight committee monitors projects and expenditures from the surtax funds.
Commissioner Carolyn Ketchel thanked King and the Chambers for their unified support.
- “The first four years that I was a commissioner, I had so many people call and say, ‘I need this done, I need that done,’” Ketchel said. “I said, put it on the list, and we had no hope of touching it. [In the last] seven years we’ve been able to do so many things and move forward way beyond that.”
Commissioner Drew Palmer said the county is in a stronger position now than when the surtax was first pursued a decade ago, noting that commissioners can now point to a track record of accomplishments rather than simply asking voters to trust them.
Palmer, who described himself as “a numbers guy,” noted that when factoring in the grant matches along with the tourist contribution, only about 20 percent of project costs are paid by local residents.
- “Thank you to you, thank you to the other chambers and ECAR and everybody else that has written letters of support for this,” Palmer said. “It’s extremely important for us to continue to serve the community in the best way that we can.”
Chairman Paul Mixon said the commission will bring the matter back as an agenda item early in 2025 to work out the ballot language and build consensus among commissioners before the 2026 election.
