The Florida PACE Funding Agency was created in June 2011 by general law through an interlocal agreement. The initial incorporators are Flagler County and the City of Kissimmee. The Agency’s mission is to facilitate the implementation, planning, development, funding, financing, marketing and management of a statewide platform so that counties and cities can easily and economically take advantage of a uniform, scalable program for their property-owning constituents. The Florida PACE Funding Agency was designed to insulate local governments from liability and the heavy use of staff time for such a voluntary program.
Florida’s PACE legislation allows individual residential and commercial property owners to voluntarily seek financing for certain energy or wind resistant improvements in the form of a special assessment though their local government with payback occurring over a period of years and collected on the same bill as property taxes. The Florida Legislature in 2010 overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation that carefully details the authority and processes for a PACE program and assessments in Florida.
To date, the Agency has been established by a charter, has adopted a master bond resolution, and has directed Bryant Miller Olive to validate the Agency’s ability to issue bonds to fund the various voluntary financing agreements entered into pursuant to general law, together with a litany of matters and issues associated with the statutorily authorized non-ad valorem assessments which will comprise the revenues to repay the bonds.