|
Economics  Besides tourism and
agriculture, there was not much more than "bedroom community" growth in Rockledge until the 70's. At that time the city fathers recognized that to maintain and continually improve the quality of life in the
city, it would be necessary to raise taxes at a moderate rate, which had never been very popular, or expand the tax base. It seemed the most desirable way to go at that time was to
expand the tax base with industrial development within the city. The bottom line benefit to the residents would be that, as an example, a new major industry locating in the area would be taxed at the
same Ad valorum tax rate as residential property. Say, for example, that the new industrial facility had about the same value as a small residential neighborhood development. The industry would not have
all the homestead exemptions accumulated by the homeowners, so based just on a total value to total taxes paid ratio, the industry would create a lot more revenue for use throughout the city. However,
in all probability, the industry would require a lot less service. There wouldn't be streets lined with hobos required to be picked up, but rather probably only one trash receptacle or receptacle area. There
wouldn't be streets that needed to be swept, capped, repaved or patrolled; nor adjacent sidewalks needing maintenance. Well, the city was off in the hunt for clean and non-polluting new industries and before too
long they landed the ROVAC Corporation. At the time Rovac was a high profile company with hopes of making freonless air conditioning units. The application for the use of such in military applications alone
such as tanks, airplanes, etc., is mind boggling and Rovac hoped to produce these units with 75% more efficiency and 25% less expense or vise versa. The city welcomed Rovac with more than open arms and went
out on the limb to spend a few thousand dollars to seal Rovac's location in Rockledge. And it turned out to be a wise decision by the city fathers. For although Rovac never seemed to get off the ground as
expected, the initiative displayed by the city fathers was in part helpful in convincing the Federal Government to favor the city with a 1.34 million dollar grant which was used to develop an 800+ acre
industrial park by paving roads and installing water, sewer and natural gas lines past most of the property. Additionally, the State of Florida Department of Commerce was so impressed that over
$200,000 was granted from the state and used with more city money to build another complete road and improvements which was subsequently named after the city manager. Norsk Hydro, once referred to by a
Development Council member as the General Motors of Norway, was the next major tenant in the industrial  park. Today, a drive down Murrell Road, Gus Hipp Boulevard, or adjacent roads will
reveal what followed. The Rockledge economy is healthy, diversified and growing in a steady manner. Our local laws allow only the cleaner light industries and prohibit the
heavy polluting types that are undesirable. Certainly the future is bright. Each year the Governor's Office of Planning and Budgeting conducts a Florida Cost-of-Living study to
measure the relative price differentials across counties. The Florida Price Level Index "market basket" is made up of 123 items which are divided into five categories: food, apparel, housing,
transportation, and health/recreational/personal services. The items chosen are those typically used by consumers, most available for purchase, and with as much consistency in quality as possible from
county to county. Most of the items are priced in the field by visiting retail outlets in each county and recording the sales price. Special consideration is made to include a variety of regional outlets
(small rural stores as well as larger full-service and regional supermarkets) and to make sure that the same outlets are not used year after year.
The 123 items in the "market basket" are weighted according to their relative share of total typical expenditures. The index is weighted by population
and adjusted so that the average price has a value of 100. In 1983, Brevard County had an index value of 97.77. This indicates that our county had measured prices 2.23 percent lower than the state average.
|