- March 28, 2024
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During a first reading at its regular meeting Tuesday, the Sarasota City Commission approved a 2012 fiscal year budget that calls for a 5.3% millage rate increase.
That rate, if approved on a second reading at the end of the month, would rise from 2.7771 mills to 2.9249 mills.
Mayor Suzanne Atwell and Commissioners Paul Caragiulo and Willie Shaw approved the millage rate hike and recommendations proposed by staff, which eliminate an $800,000 shortfall by seeking more dollars from taxpayers. More than half of that shortfall will fund expenses and operational costs for the Lido Pool and the new Robert L. Taylor Community Complex in Newtown.
Vice Mayor Terry Turner and Commissioner Shannon Snyder were the dissenters on Shaw’s motion to accept staff’s budget recommendations.
“It’s not fair to our citizens to allow the millage rate to rise when we move to protect the government’s revenue and not the revenue of our citizens,” said Turner, who warned that the millage rate needs to fall with declining assessed property values.
If the higher millage rate is approved at the end of the month, it will be the first such rate increase since 2007. The owner of a home assessed at $200,000 would see a rise of about $13 in his city property tax bill, compared to the 2010 bill.
One mill equals $1 in property tax for every $1,000 of assessed value.
The higher millage rate, according to Finance Director Chris Lyons, would increase taxes for any property owner whose assessed home value has increased or stayed the same since the previous year.
Lyons noted that the city has reduced taxes for its citizens by 40.84% over the past five years.
But Turner wasn’t interested in staff’s assessment of the budget.
“Staff has argued times are difficult and taxes go down for some people even if we raise the millage rate,” Turner said. “But we are increasing the burden on taxpayers if their income has decreased in the past year and the tax rate stays the same. That’s what happens if we don’t allow the millage rate to fall with the assessed values.”
Snyder agreed.
“I would like to take a knife to some more of this budget,” Snyder said. “We are better off doing it now than next year.”
Turner warned his fellow commissioners that if they approve the staff recommendations on second reading Sept. 19, the city would have to face more difficult decisions next summer, in advance of the following fiscal year.
“There is an assumption by city staff that in fiscal year 2013 there will be a 1.5% increase in the tax base and the millage rate could be raised 16% to balance the budget,” Turner said. “That’s not the way we should be thinking.”
Former Mayor Kerry Kirschner agreed.
“What’s happened here is the good times have stopped,” said Kirschner, who urged a swift change for the city from funding pension plans to requiring defined benefit contribution plans. “Don’t waste any more time.”
But Turner, Snyder and some city residents who offered public comments found no support from the majority of the commission to go through the budget line item by line item, one more time, in search of additional cuts.
“Employee costs are out of control, but the reform is in place to curtail them,” Caragiulo said. “We are on track to make some pretty significant changes, and I am comfortable with this proposal as it is.”
Atwell, meanwhile, worried the budget as proposed by staff was too lean.
“On some level, I can be concerned the cuts go too far,” Atwell said. “We have made a pretty good dent in this. I’m a fiscal conservative, but I’m not of the view at this point that the sky is falling.”
If the commission officially approves the higher millage rate, it will generate an additional $842,617 and necessitate the city use only $1,155,909 in reserves to balance the 2012 budget, which is $11 million higher than the 2010-11 fiscal year budget.
City staff’s previous suggestion, in June, was to keep the millage rate at 2.7771 mills and take $2 million out of reserves to cover a $6 million budget shortfall.
The commission also approved the suspension of city water and sewer impact fees for 10 years to help stimulate growth.