By Tim Pallesen
Boca Raton property taxes will rise after the city council voted to increase the tax rate by 8 percent.
“This recognizes that all things in the economy will be moving up,” Councilman Michael Mullaugh said after the 3-2 vote at the city’s final budget hearing on Sept. 27. “We are in the position to offer the appropriate incentives to live in Boca Raton.”
Mayor Susan Whelchel and Commissioner Constance Scott joined Mullaugh to approve a property tax rate of $3.41 per $1,000 of taxable property. Deputy Mayor Susan Haynie and Councilman Anthony Majhess voted against it.
The increase over the current $3.15 rate will raise the tax bill by $130 for the owner of home with $500,000 in taxable value.
The spending increase comes after three years in which the city cut its operating budget by $21.9 million and eliminated 196 jobs because of falling property values.
The new budget includes $1 million in economic development incentives for new businesses that create new jobs in the city.
The tax increase drew one loud protest at the budget hearing.
“Talk to somebody who doesn’t have a government job. We’re taking big hits,” said Zon Reed, a Boca Raton real-estate broker. “Everyone has got to tighten their belts.”
The taxpayer group Boca Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility also kept up its pressure for the council to reduce spending by cutting police and fire pensions.
This year’s $1.6 million cost increase for fire and police pensions is the largest increase in the budget and is “slowly swallowing city resources,” group leader Elizabeth Grinnan said.
The council dipped into its emergency reserves to cover that cost increase.
“The city has no plan to deal with the unsustainable cost of public safety,” Grinnan told the council. “Show the leadership for which you were elected.”
Whelchel responded that the council has “been remiss in not being more open about what we have to address.”
City Manager Leif Ahnell is currently in pension talks with fire and police unions, promising proposed changes to the council early next year. Several council members said they want a task force of experts to assist him in negotiations. Úp
Comments