2 min read December 2021 — Broward County has welcomed an influx of residents and development while leveraging a penny tax to improve infrastructure and expand employment options for residents. Sandy-Michael McDonald, Broward County Office of Economic and Small Business Development director, spoke to Invest: about his excitement for the county’s long-term prospects as the economy stabilizes.
What impact is the influx of new residents and businesses having on the business ecosystem?
Beyond the impact of more people is the impact of property values going up. A lot of the construction that was ongoing prior to COVID continued and a lot of properties on the rental and commercial side are now coming to fruition. This is the upside of being able to embrace the infusion of people to Broward County. From the perspective of our agency, we’re focused on small businesses. If aspiring entrepreneurs and small businesses want to know how to get engaged with the county, our office is the channel for that.
How is the county meeting infrastructural needs to accommodate substantial growth?
In 2018, the county started the surtax Mobility Advancement Program, or MAP initiative. This allocates one cent of our sales tax to transportation operations, transportation services, infrastructure and railways. The penny tax is estimated to collect about $355 million per year for 30 years. The infusion of people started a decade ago and from a transportation perspective, Broward needed to commit more resources to relieve traffic and congestion and develop other means of mobility to get people around the county, even prior to COVID. In 2018, Broward was successful in the mapping initiative for transportation and highway projects and is now working with our cities and the county to do more with our roads to make them less congestive and more pedestrian friendly.
What strategies have businesses implemented to mitigate the labor shortage?
In 2019, we started a county apprenticeship program. Contractors who win county contracts are required to allocate 12% of apprentice labor hours for certain projects. We’ve been working with the Department of Education and community based organizations to engage our communities and inform people about these apprenticeships and trade opportunities. As a county, we need to make sure we’re marketing these for future needs and industry growth. We suspended the program during COVID but we reinstated it and officially relaunched the program in April 2021. We partnered with the state identified apprenticeship programs in Broward and connected them to our school districts, community partners and other trade associations to educate and share information, making sure they’re connected to our business community.
An additional focus to mitigating labor shortage is developing the workforce at an early age. We want to make students as young as middle school aware of careers in the trades. We have to make sure young folks, adults and parents are familiar with these opportunities. A trade job can provide higher earnings right away with learning skills and without the debt of four year college. We recognize the opportunity and the challenge is to increase labor support, identify other opportunities for trade, and give folks more options.
What are your near-term priorities?
Broward is already committed to funding its own infrastructure because of the penny tax. The penny tax is also being utilized by the Citizen Broward which affords our small businesses more opportunities. While collecting an estimated $355 million per year in penny tax, an average of $177 million dollars will have an assigned small business goal of 30%. Small businesses in Broward will have competitive access to $53 million dollars per year. Additional near-term priorities also include continuing initiatives at the port along with the airport master plan, which is a $3.2 billion expansion along with the completion of the Convention Center expansion and the new 800 room hotel scheduled to begin in Spring 2022.
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