PERSPECTIVE
INDUSTRY LEADERS
SAVOR FLORIDA VICTORY
Working on a shoestring budget, the marine community showed voters the value
of working waterfronts, and they responded by passing Amendment 6
By Jim Flannery / Senior Writer
Dabout the economy, Florida’s
marine industry found reason
espite unremitting bad news
to celebrate after the Nov. 4 elections,
as Floridians voted to adopt an amendment to the state constitution to help
preserve working waterfront.
“We’re thankful for the public of Florida — that they came through,” says
John Sprague, who worked three years
to get Amendment 6 on the ballot.
The amendment requires country assessors to set the taxable value of working waterfront on the basis of its actual
use instead of its “highest and best”
use. The measure passed with the support of 70. 5 percent of the voters.
“I was kind of amazed that we were at
70 percent,” says Sprague, a Palm Beach
County marina owner and government
affairs chairman of the Marine Industries
Association of Florida. “That’s a landslide. The vote was 4,058,582 for the
amendment; 2,663,346 against it.”
The margin of voter support was the
highest of any of the six constitutional
amendments on the ballot.
A grassroots campaiign iis
crediited ffor the overwhelmiing
passage off Amendmentt 6,,
whiich wiilll hellp prrottectt
Florriida”s worrkiing watterrffrrontt
ffrrom non--marriine devellopmentt..
A ‘Herculean’ effort
Sprague says the industry had little
money to promote the measure, but
waged an intense grassroots campaign in
the final month. Industry stalwarts, he
says, put out signs, bought advertising on
billboards, educated employees, lobbied
neighbors, and passed out literature at
grocery stores, PTA meetings and to parents of trick-or-treaters on Halloween.
“It was really a grassroots effort,” he
says.
Measure takes the pressure off at E&H
By Jim Flannery / Senior Writer
How do you spell relief? A-m-e-n-d-m-e-n-t- 6.
At least that’s what Christopher Hodge is thinking after Floridians voted Nov. 4 to adopt the tax relief measure for working waterfronts. Some property tax relief would be welcome, especially
in today’s tough economic climate, says Hodge, president of
E&H Boat Works and The Ways, both in Palm Beach Gardens.
E&H, a one-time full-service yard that relies mostly on contractors now, and The Ways, a self-service facility, are neighbors.
The Hodge home lies between them.
“The taxes are the only reason we invented The Ways,” says
Hodge, 56. That was in 1984. “This has been an issue for us for
a long time.”
CHRIS LANDRY;JIM FLANNERY (FROM TOP)
He says he opened the self-service yard to generate more income
so he could afford the taxes on The Ways property. Leon and Andrea Hodge, his mom and dad, started E&H in 1946 on a piece of the
4-1/3 acres of prime Intracoastal waterfront the family now owns.
The property, just north of PGA Boulevard, is on the edge of “the
PGA Corridor,” some of the priciest land in Palm Beach County.
Christopher Hodge still runs the E&H Boat Works, which
his parents founded in 1946. His first pay stub from the
family business was for 10 cents an hour.
His taxes: $110,000
Amendment 6 requires county assessors in Florida to set the
taxable value of working waterfront on the basis of its actual use
instead of its highest and best use so marine-related businesses
can survive in neighborhoods where condominiums and other
high-profit uses are driving up property values.
Hodge’s total property-tax bill now is about $110,000.
He says he’s had at least five offers to buy the property in the
last few years. One developer wanted to turn it into a state-of-the-art drystack marina; another planned a mega-development — a
See E&H, next page
With a $20,000 budget, the effort to
win passage was “Herculean,” says
Marty Levan, a dockominium developer
and president of the Marine Industries
Association of the Treasure Coast. “Last
night [as voter returns came in], I was
not sure what was going to happen.”
He says he was “flummoxed” by the
overwhelmingly favorable vote — but
also “deeply gratified.”
“It was critically important that we
have this relief,” he says. “It will help
businesses survive and also maintain
and improve public access.”
In a state where boating is a way of
life, advocates of the amendment argued
that marine business owners are under
extreme pressure to convert their marinas, boatyards, dry stacks, commercial
fishing and other marine-related facilities
to other more profitable uses because of
high waterfront taxes that reflect the
value of neighboring condominiums and
other luxury developments.
“In the last few years, we’ve lost a lot
of working waterfront that has been
turned into condominiums,” says J.J.
Connell, a yacht broker and president
of the Marine Industries Association of
South Florida. As unemployment across
the state inches up, Connell says the
vote wasn’t just about boats and boating, but about jobs. “We need to preserve the jobs. We need to keep the
See Leaders, next page
