By Steve Plunkett
Briny Breezes Town Manager Bill Thrasher is preparing a budget for fiscal year 2026 that will raise town property taxes to $6.75 per $1,000 of taxable value, up 80% from the current $3.75 rate.
“Its purpose is for covering debt service with a possible loan,” he told town aldermen at their March 27 meeting.
Thrasher said he was developing different budget packages to respond to possible changes in local funding by state lawmakers in Tallahassee, including their potentially doing away with property taxes entirely.
“As far as I know, that hasn’t been picked up,” he said. “I don’t think that’s really going to happen.”
But proposals to increase the homestead exemption by $25,000 or even $50,000 might, he said, so he was preparing budgets to take each scenario into account. The next fiscal year starts Oct. 1.
Briny Breezes has 156 properties that claim a homestead exemption, he said.
Alderman Bill Birch said a $6.75 tax rate would have a small effect on residents’ total property tax bills, which include levies from Palm Beach County, the county School District and other taxing authorities.
He held out his own property tax bill as proof.
“If it went from $3.75 to $6.75 my tax bill would change by $133 a year total coming back to Briny. I would only wind up paying an increase of $11 a month. So it’s not doubling your tax bill by any means,” Birch said.
Fiscal year 2024 was the first time since 2009 that Briny Breezes did not levy $10 per $1,000 of taxable value, the maximum allowed by state law, and levied only $3.75 per $1,000. The maneuver was said to give the town room to raise taxes, perhaps back to the $10 rate, to repay loans it might take out to finance sea walls, drainage improvements and new streets to fight sea-level rise.
Meanwhile, Briny Breezes Inc. paid 70% of the cost of police and fire rescue services in town, which it offset by charging residents of the mobile home park higher annual assessments.
In prior years, the town used the maximum $10 tax rate to enable residents to take a higher deduction on their federal tax returns.
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