Town police have patrolled Gulf Stream’s newest 16.6 acres ever since annexation of the once-unincorporated pocket took effect March 15. Delray Beach, which contracts out fire-rescue service to the town, has answered calls for help.
But Gulf Stream has not received a penny of property taxes to pay for the additional workload. Town Manager William Thrasher has been negotiating with Palm Beach County — without success — for part of the taxes that pocket residents have paid.
“They are not very cooperative at this time point,’’ Thrasher said.
And he will have to keep asking the county to share the tax revenues in the coming budget year.
Pocket residents are still on the county’s tax roll and won’t be placed on Gulf Stream’s roll until Jan. 1.
Thrasher has estimated the pocket will generate about $200,000 in property taxes for the town, but he could not include that sum in the budget he proposed for fiscal 2012.
He recommended that commissioners adopt a tax rate of $2.93 for each $1,000 of taxable value, which would raise the same total dollars as the previous year.
“I want to clearly state, I do not believe that number is high,’’ Thrasher said.
The 2011 rate was $2.87 per $1,000 of taxable value. Gulf Stream’s total taxable value dropped 2 percent, from $666.7 million to $652.8 mil-lion, Thrasher said.
The annexed pocket, bordered by Sea Road on the south, County Road on the west, St. Andrews Club on the north and the ocean, will add about $69 million to the town’s tax base.
Even though the consumer price index rose 3.9 percent, Thrasher proposed raising salaries of town workers only 2.5 percent. His proposal also includes an additional $15,035, or 5 percent, for a scheduled increase in the fire contract with Delray Beach.
Commissioners rescheduled their next meetings for 9 a.m. Aug. 16 and 4 p.m. Sept. 15. They will hold public hearings on the budget at 5:01 p.m. Sept. 15 and Sept. 22.
In other action, commissioners voted to spend up to $5,000 on a study with neighboring towns of how to share services to reduce costs.
“I think that the smaller communities, we should get together,’’ Mayor William Koch Jr. said. “We’ve got to move ahead and look for other ways to survive.’’
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