News

By Steve Plunkett

    The recent years of low or no tax increases appear to be over in Boca Raton.
    City Manager Leif Ahnell proposed that property owners pay $3.66 per $1,000 of taxable value for the coming budget year, up 4.3 percent from this year’s $3.51 rate.
    “Remember, this is the maximum. You can always lower it in September but you can’t increase it beyond this,” Ahnell said, adding that his rate would provide $250,000 for security at the presidential debate in October as well as money to reopen Spanish River Park on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and to operate a new, larger library downtown.
    But council member Michael Mullaugh persuaded the council to add 17 cents to Ahnell’s proposal.
    “It gives us some room if we were to decide to fund something more than what the city manager comes up with in a budget,” he said. “We need to have some flexibility to look at things.”
    The council July 10 voted 5-0 to adopt Mullaugh’s $3.83 rate.
    Mullaugh said he hoped the final budget would require even lower taxes than the rate Ahnell proposed.
    A home assessed at $1 million after exemptions last year paid $3,510 in city property taxes. If that home’s assessment grew the same as the city’s average 1.2 percent and Mullaugh’s rate is adopted, it would owe $3,878 this year, an increase of $368 or 10.5 percent.
  Mayor Susan Whelchel said the extra taxes could be used for a possible Lake Wyman restoration and to start feeding $1 million a year to an incentive fund to attract businesses.
    Ahnell also recommended adding $5 to the $80 fire fee each residence is assessed. Fee increases for businesses would also go up, he said.
    Boca Raton will have its first public hearing on the budget at 6 p.m. Sept. 13 at City Hall. The council is on its summer schedule and will not meet again until Aug. 27-28.
    Most of a property owner’s tax bill goes to the school district and the county. Boca Raton property owners also are taxed by the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District and other taxing authorities.