The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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In 1925 Highlands County created a tax district whose only purpose was advertising

Florida’s land boom is usually described through subdivisions, hotels and bond issues. Here it is in its purest form: a unit of local government created to buy advertisements.

Chapter 10624 (No. 602), Laws of Florida 1925 creates “a special tax district for publicity purposes … in Highlands County, Florida.”[lof-1925-10624] Its boundary runs from the north-west corner of Section 6, Township 33 South, Range 28 East — the north-west corner of the Avon Park township — south to the south-west corner of Section 7, Township 34 South, Range 28 East, east to the south-east corner of Section 8, Township 34 South, Range 30 East, north to the county line, and west along the county line back to the beginning. That is the northern, Avon Park end of the county.

How it worked:

  • Five supervisors, each an owner of property inside the district and resident in it, serving without compensation, elected annually at a meeting of the property owners held at Avon Park on the first Tuesday in January. Votes were weighted by the assessed value of the voter’s property.
  • On a petition signed by the owners of a majority of the property on the current assessment roll, the county commissioners were required to levy up to three mills on everything in the district.
  • The supervisors could contract for printing and advertising and pay for it.
  • “No part of the funds arising from said levies shall be expended for salaries, the entire amount to be used exclusively for the purchase of publicity matter and advertising the district.”
  • The act took effect only if a majority of the district’s freeholders confirmed it at a referendum, which the county commissioners had to order within forty-five days of a petition signed by twenty-five per cent of the qualified voters.

Statutory structure and governance. Although the descriptive title of the act included the phrase “and Name the First Board of Supervisors,” the enacted body approved by Governor John W. Martin named no individual appointees.[lof-1925-10624] Instead, Section 2 established that the five-member board must be elected directly by resident property owners at an annual assembly in Avon Park, while Section 8 mandated that the district could take legal effect only upon ratification by a majority of freeholders voting in a special referendum called after a petition of 25% of qualified electors.

Between September 1921 and February 1926, forty-one subdivisions were platted at Avon Park, twenty-one of them in 1925 alone.[nrhp-90000486] The publicity tax district represented the extreme institutionalization of the land boom: creating a statutory taxing authority designed exclusively to finance commercial advertising for northern investors while legally barring any expenditure on public salaries.

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
single-source — One source. Treat as reported, not established.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
Rights
society

Sources

  1. Legislature of the State of Florida, Chapter 10624 (No. 602), Laws of Florida 1925: An Act Creating a Special Tax District for Publicity Purposes in Highlands County, Florida (1925)
  2. United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Avon Park Historic District (1990)

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