By Jane Smith
Delray Beach city commissioners will keep the tax rate steady, but there was disagreement on doing so during their July 13 meeting.
Mayor Shelly Petrolia wanted to reduce the rate slightly to give taxpayers a break, as did Commissioner Juli Casale.
“I would like to find $1 million to give back to our residents,” Petrolia said.
Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson reminded the commissioners that in the next budget year they will have to negotiate contracts with the police and general employees unions.
The final vote was 3-2 to keep the current tax rate.
Tax rates had to be set by the end of July for the property appraiser to mail notices in mid-August to every property owner. The notices cover assessed and taxable values and proposed tax rates. The rates can be lowered but not raised during budget hearings in September.
The city’s proposed rate is the same as last year’s, $6.66 per $1,000 of taxable value. In July 2020, Delray Beach commissioners kept the tax rate the same as the previous year’s.
Delray Beach will soon receive its first half of a total $10.96 million payment from the American Rescue Plan. More details of how the city will spend that money will be provided at the Aug. 24 budget workshop, said John Lege, the city’s new finance director.
The city’s debt service for the next financial year dropped to $0.02 per $1,000.
The 2021 taxable value for Delray Beach totaled $12.52 billion, a 5.3% increase over 2020.
Lege also told the commissioners at their budget discussion earlier that income from building permit fees should be in a separate fund and not mingled with other revenue in the general fund.
The city will take in $5.67 million from building permits and plans, Lege said. The division will have about $2.86 million in expenses, leaving about $2.81 million that can be spent only on building code enforcement, he said.
The building revenues have been restricted for at least 20 years, Lege said. In 2019, the state Legislature defined how the money can be spent.
The commissioners were skeptical about the need for a special building fund.
Anthea Gianniotes, Development Services director, said her predecessor had tried to move the building permit fees out of the general fund, but then-City Manager Mark Lauzier moved the revenue back into the general fund.
“It’s a bit of an accounting exercise to separate the building department needs from the planning department needs up until 2019,” she said. “Then, the Legislature passed a law explaining how to do this.”
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