By John Pacenti
So much for the bully pulpit.
Delray Beach Mayor Tom Carney put commissioners on notice, blasting them in two newsletters in July for not being serious about saving taxpayers money.
“I have proposed specific budget cuts to the Commission, but unfortunately, none of my fellow commissioners have offered any cuts,” Carney said in his July 19 newsletter, titled “Stop the Tax Hike: Protect Delray Beach’s Financial Future.”
Carney’s effort at the July 22 special meeting to keep the tax rate the same as last year failed, with only Commissioner Angela Burns joining him. Instead, Vice Mayor Rob Long joined Commissioners Juli Casale and Tom Markert, who voted to adopt a total rate of $6.19 per $1,000 of taxable property value, which also contains a small rate for voter-approved debt.
In addition, property owners can expect their taxes to increase because the values of their homes went up 8.74% on average, according to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office — though homesteaded properties are capped at a 3% increase in taxable value under the state’s Save Our Homes Act.
“I have to tell you, you sent out two emails that threw us all under the bus,” Casale scolded Carney about his newsletters. “It is pretty clear you are basically acting like you’re the only one up here working for the residents, and I feel like that’s super unfair to us, because we all work really hard.”
Casale said she has informed City Manager Terrence Moore where she thinks cuts could be made — she just didn’t make the ideas public.
‘Challenging’ budget
Moore said this year’s proposed budget “was especially challenging” given the decision of a very different commission two years ago to have the fire department go from a 24/48 shift structure (24 hours on, 48 hours off) to a 24/72 shift structure starting Oct. 1.
Earlier in July, Moore told commissioners that without a tax increase, the city faced a $25 million shortfall for the fiscal year 2026 budget that begins Oct. 1. He makes up for that shortfall in the current proposal by taking $7.3 million from reserves, then adds in revenue from the tax increase and increased property values, and does not fill vacant positions in departments across the board.
All of this could be temporary as the commission can whittle away at the tax rate until its final adoption in mid-September. The commission can lower that proposed rate, but not increase it, during the public budget hearings scheduled for Sept. 3 and 15.
However, commissioners were under pressure to either get on board with the mayor or break with him because notices to residents of the proposed tax rate go out in August.
And break with Carney they did as the mayor went after some sacred cows that were pretty unsavory cuts to the majority.
Carney said he was looking for an additional 1% cut in the proposed $201.3 million budget. He said in his July 3 newsletter that residents have experienced a 45% tax increase in the last five years. He also cited bureaucratic bloat to residents, saying the Delray Beach budget has expanded from being only $103 million ten years ago.
Old allies split with mayor
Last year, a Carney-led majority — including Markert and Casale — did hold the line on taxes, approving a lower “no new taxes” rate referred to as the rolled-back rate. The total rate was $5.94 per $1,000 of taxable value, which contained a small rate that went for voter-approved debt. This year’s proposed rate amounts to about a 4.2% increase.
In discussing the impact of the proposed rate, staff used an average home valued at $447,000. With the rate increase and a 3% increase in value, such a home would see a city tax increase of about $190.
The mayor took umbrage with that, saying neighborhoods in Lake Ida, Tropic Isle and Palm Trail have taxable values exceeding $2 million. A home valued at $2 million last year would see a city tax increase of closer to $900 under the proposed rate.
How unpopular were Carney’s ideas on the dais? Well, for a brief shining moment, Long and Casale — who often loudly disagree (Long defeated incumbent Casale in a 2023 election contest) — were on the same page.
Carney suggested stripping $500,000 away from the city’s 505 Teen Center (at 505 SE Fifth Ave.), saying a nonprofit could run it better. He said about 13 to 15 kids use the center after they get out of school.
“That’s $33,000 a child,” he said.
Casale said there is one employee at the 505 and questioned Carney’s $500,000 figure. Carney also suggested nonprofits take over public events, such as the St. Patrick’s Day parade and other festivals.
“Do we think that nonprofits in this current economic climate are going to have the wherewithal to step up and do Jazz on the Avenue? No,” Casale said.
Pressure from state
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a MAGA Republican, last year declared war on nonprofits that put on arts and culture events, vetoing many grants the Legislature had included in the state budget for them. He is now going after Democratic strongholds like Broward County and the city of Gainesville, saying they are wasting taxpayers’ money.
“They have a new DOGE department,” Carney said at the July 22 special meeting, referring to the state’s Department of Government Efficiency, which is based on one instituted at the federal level by President Donald Trump that was once headed by billionaire Elon Musk. “They’re going to all the cities and they’re asking them to review their budgets, to review all kinds of stuff.”
Long wasn’t buying what Carney was selling, saying the mayor was talking about small amounts of savings for residents if the tax rate stayed the same as last year compared to the proposed rate. That difference is about $115 for a home valued at $447,000 last year and $515 for one valued at $2 million.
“I’ll pay $20 a month to make sure that my roads are paved, our Police Department staffed and our fire department staffed, and that we actually can still have our signature events, yeah, I would, I would happily pay $20 a month for that,” Long said.
Markert didn’t like that the proposed budget would take from reserves, noting how the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been “decimated” by Trump’s budget cuts.
“You need only look at the results of what happened in Texas last week,” he said of the July 4 weekend flooding along the Guadalupe River that killed at least 134 people. “We have to be prepared to handle a disaster on our own because you cannot count on FEMA being available.”
Comments