By Steve Plunkett

In a surprise move, Briny Breezes Town Manager Bill Thrasher dropped his proposal to raise town taxes 98% and instead proposed keeping the property tax rate the same as this year, at $3.75 per $1,000 of taxable value.

The Town Council agreed and adopted the rate and accompanying $5.3 million budget Sept. 25.

The revised budget for fiscal year 2026, which started Oct. 1, also includes 5% raises for Thrasher and Town Clerk Sandi DuBose.

Thrasher had talked for months about a tax rate of $6.75 per $1,000, detailing the proposal at council meetings and on the Briny Breezes in-house TV channel.

But on Sept. 3, the town’s consultants on its sea wall and stormwater system upgrades sent an email “informing me that the town’s loan will not occur in FY26 or perhaps only late FY26,” referring to the fiscal year. 

“The state revolving loan fund will not accept construction loan application before August 2026,” Thrasher continued. “This may change to an earlier date, but the uncertainty caused the change.”

In short, he said, if the town doesn’t take out a loan, it doesn’t need to raise taxes to pay for one.

As recently as the Aug. 28 council meeting, Thrasher gave a PowerPoint slide presentation demonstrating that the $6.75 rate would have raised one resident’s overall tax bill by $394 — or 18% if all other taxing agencies kept their rates level and the resident’s property appraisal stayed the same.

But the town’s assessed property values rose 10%, one of the top increases among municipalities in south Palm Beach County.

Even keeping the same $3.75 per $1,000 rate will raise taxes the town receives 9.97% more than the rolled-back rate. That levy, $3.41 per $1,000 of taxable value, would have given the town the same tax revenue as this year, except for taxes from new construction.

At the Sept. 11 public hearing on the then-tentative tax rate, Thrasher said the new $3.75 per $1,000 rate is equivalent to roughly $2 per share in the Briny Breezes Inc. co-op. Mobile homes in Briny Breezes have differing shares based on lot size and location.

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