By John Pacenti
Last year, Delray Beach Mayor Tom Carney spearheaded a rollback of the city’s tax rate. This year, it rolled right back on residents and businesses.
And, as usual — as if this commission knows no other way — there was plenty of drama and gnashing of teeth.
The budget deliberations had City Manager Terrence Moore playing P.T. Barnum to this circus, taking to the high-wire himself to find a way to erase a $25 million deficit that some commissioners blamed on last year’s rollback. Meanwhile, the mayor played the carny, calling out for cuts and hoping someone would take up his challenge.
Ah, September was a taxing month — literally and figuratively — for Delray Beach. First, Gov. Ron DeSantis made good on his declaration to erase the city’s beloved LGBTQ rainbow intersection, and then there was the circus-like Sept. 15 workshop meeting on the budget.
“Please forgive me for being loquacious. I’m just a little excited,” Moore said at the height of debate at that meeting after taking commissioners down a rabbit-hole soliloquy on the consumer price index.
Tax rate rises
In the end, the commission voted 3-2 to approve a $201.5 million general operating budget at its regular meeting later that day. That is up $15 million from the previous year. The city will use $3.4 million from reserves to shore up revenues for the new 2025-26 budget year that began Oct. 1.
Carney and Commissioner Angela Burns were the no votes.
Commissioners set the city’s combined tax rate at $6.19 for every $1,000 of taxable property value by the same 3-2 vote. That represents a 4.18% increase of the previous rate of $5.94 per $1,000 and breaks the city’s streak of 12 consecutive years with a reduction.
“This is just a correction to ensure we can continue providing essential services,” said Vice Mayor Rob Long, who warned last year that rolling back the tax rate would create a deficit.
The commission’s action last year was in effect a “no new taxes budget” that is seldom adopted because it forces a local government — with the exception of taxes generated from new construction — to live on the same amount of tax dollars despite the inflation and population growth that have occurred.
Burns said that even by raising the tax rate, services were still being cut and the city had to borrow from the reserves.
“I wasn’t in support of the rollback in the first place. Definitely not. And fear exactly what we’re going through,” she said during the Sept. 15 regular meeting, arguing both against proposed cuts and raising the tax rate. “This is just not a good time, in my opinion, to raise any costs.”
Carney later would tell The Coastal Star that the city should have been more proactive in finding ways to reduce expenses and generate additional revenue. He felt the budget process could have been more thorough in addressing financial challenges.
“We didn’t look for enough cuts, and we certainly didn’t look for enough revenue sources,” he said.
Doing the math
Finance Director Henry Dachowitz said that for an average homeowner with a taxable value of $448,000, the city portion of the tax bill would increase $113 from $2,660 to $2,773.
Homesteaded properties are capped under state law at a maximum 3% increase in any one year, but that is not true for businesses or non-homesteaded residential properties, which are capped at a 10% increase.
To Moore’s exasperation, Carney insisted that he did the math and that the increase to the average property owner would be 11%. “It’s not 11, it’s not 10, it’s not 9,” Moore said during the Sept. 15 workshop.
Moore tried to appease Carney somewhat, offering $501,000 in additional cuts hitting about every department. “Half a million dollars is nothing to sneeze at,” the manager said.
Commissioner Juli Casale was confused, saying that at a previous budget workshop, no additional cuts were discussed.
The cuts were whittled down to $425,000 after commissioners voiced concerns about cutting such services as power-washing downtown’s sidewalks or providing staff with critical training, such as for the troubled Code Enforcement Division.
“I get really worried when I look at the cuts that we’re dialing back here,” said Commissioner Tom Markert, who, along with Casale, had supported Carney’s push for the rolled-back rate last year. “When I sat in CEO roles, I hated when people came in with budgets like this.”
Casale said there just aren’t a lot of areas to cut. “We have commitments that are not flexible in the city, contractual commitments,” she said. “Ninety percent of our allocated expenses are locked in.”
Commissioners feud
Carney had been on the warpath regarding budget cuts, looking to cut youth services or get private philanthropic groups to start picking up the tab. He criticized the Downtown Development Authority’s tax rate and “lack of transparency” and sent out emails criticizing commissioners.
“Do you think I’m not accountable? Do you think I’m not transparent?” Casale said. “Are you saying that Henry isn’t, or my colleagues aren’t? You’re getting people angry with us in an environment where it’s not good to be getting people angry at your commissioners.”
At one point, Markert took on Carney, saying he just wasn’t living in reality when he suggested budget cuts.
“Let’s just slash the budgets. We’ll slash the people. We’ll slash all of our programs,” he said at the budget workshop on Sept. 15.
“Our property rates are going to drop like a stone in the city because we don’t attract and do the right things that we’ve been doing for years and years and years.”
At the same meeting, Markert and Carney locked horns again over the mayor’s 11% number. “Can you be the mayor for once?” Markert snapped.
“You’re out of order, I’m the mayor,” Carney said.
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