News

By Dan Moffett

    Gulf Stream consistently ranks among the state’s most affluent communities, which helps explain how the town has been able to absorb a stunning increase in budget expenses that few other municipalities could.
    Over the last two years, residents have watched their tax rate soar about 42 percent — from $3.497 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2013, to $3.90 in 2014, to the current proposed rate of $5 per $1,000.
    This comes at a time when the town’s property values have been soaring, too — up 14 percent in 2014 over the previous year and up another 10.6 percent over that this year to $965 million. The town’s total budget has almost doubled from about $3.1 million three years ago to the $5.8 million proposed for the next fiscal year.
    Where has all the new revenue gone? Most of it is going to legal bills, which now account for close to 20 percent of the entire budget. Gulf Stream officials blame two litigious residents for the exploding numbers: Martin O’Boyle and Chris O’Hare.
This years’s budget includes $1 million to cover the anticipated legal fees the town will incur from defending itself against dozens of lawsuits O’Boyle and O’Hare have filed against Gulf Stream, its commissioners and its employees.
    At the July 10 town commission meeting, O’Hare called the legal bills and budget numbers “distressing” and said commissioners should change their approach, stop fighting in the courts and work for a settlement with the two men.
    “The $1 million in legal fees is a burden on the 500 property owners that pay taxes here,” O’Hare said. “It only takes three commissioners to change the direction this ship is heading.”
    “Why don’t you dismiss all your lawsuits?” Mayor Scott Morgan asked him. “It would save the town so much money … I think the entire town would love that. Why don’t you give that some thought?”
    Because of the legal expenses, homeowners will get no break from their rising property values. The current rollback rate — the millage at which tax revenues would remain the same as 2015 — is $3.63 per $1,000, meaning taxpayers, under the proposed budget, will be charged 36 percent more than what they paid last year despite the robust real estate appreciation. And all this comes while the town also is paying for a multiyear $5.4  million project to move its utility lines underground.
    Town Manager William Thrasher said his budget proposal will generate enough revenue to replenish the town’s dwindling reserves with an infusion of about $672,000. Thrasher said that will provide a cushion against emergencies. Beyond legal expenses, close to 25 percent of the total budget, roughly $1.5 million, goes to Delray Beach for fire-rescue, water and building services.
    Gulf Stream’s taxpayers can take some solace from knowing that their town’s budget methodology is well-regarded within its peer group. The Chicago-based Government Finance Officers Association honored the town with its Distinguished Budget Presentation Award this year, giving officials high marks for the budget as “a policy document, a financial plan, an operations guide (and) a communications device.” It is the only national awards program in government budgeting.
    The GFOA recognized Rebecca Tew, the town’s accountant, for her work on the budget, and the Town Commission gave her a round of applause at the July meeting.

Gulf Stream
Proposed tax rate: $5 per $1,000 of taxable value
2014-15 tax rate: $3.90 per $1,000 of taxable value
Change in property value: 10.6 percent increase
Total budget (operating and capital): $5.8 million
Public hearings: 5:01 p.m. Sept. 11 and 22 at Town Hall