News

By Rich Pollack

    Highland Beach residents will see their municipal tax rate drop for a second consecutive year, after town officials gave tentative approval to a change in the operating rate from $3.50 per $1,000 of taxable value to about $3.28 per $1,000.
    During a special meeting last month, commissioners voted to approve the tentative rate but added that it could probably be even lower once the process of reviewing the town’s proposed 2016-17 budget begins this month.
    “I feel we can probably go down from there as we start tweaking,” Commissioner Carl Feldman said.
    The overall tax rate, with debt service included, would decrease to $3.88 per $1,000 of taxable value from $4.14.
    The reduction in the operating tax rate to the rollback rate — the rate needed to generate the same amount of property tax revenue the town received in the prior year — was made possible by an increase in the overall taxable value of property within the town.
    That number increased from $2.07 billion last year to $2.2 billion this fiscal year.
    Last year, Highland Beach commissioners cut the operating tax rate from $3.95 per $1,000 of taxable value — where it had been for three consecutive years — to $3.50.
    In addition to recommending that commissioners accept the rollback rate as the tentative tax rate, Finance Director Cale Curtis presented a proposed $11.02 million 2016-17 general fund budget.
    That budget is an increase of about $200,000 from the current year’s budget with about $31,000 in additional tax revenue as well as about $25,000 in revenue from licenses and fees.
    Curtis said the town can expect an additional $244,000 in expenses due to a newly negotiated contract for fire service with Delray Beach, which would be offset by reductions in personnel expenses and capital expenditures.
    Commissioners agreed to hold public hearings on the budget at 5:01 p.m. on Sept. 14 and Sept. 27.