By John Pacenti
Ocean Ridge commissioners passed a $14.8 million operating budget smoothly on Sept. 15 — a contrast to recent years, where elected officials clashed with the town manager and the math didn’t add up.
But Ocean Ridge is in the Michelle Heiser era, the new town manager brought on in May.
The budget, though, is hefty by Ocean Ridge standards, representing a 9.6% increase over the Fiscal Year 2025 budget. It is also more than $1 million higher than what Heiser originally proposed back in July.
The budget includes $4.36 million allocated for capital projects, with a notable focus on infrastructure improvements, including potential design and construction of changes to the town's aging water pipe system in the southern part of town to address hydrant-related challenges.
All this will be done with 4.7% less revenue, in part because of the sunsetting of a local sales tax initiative that expires in December, Heiser said. Gov. Ron DeSantis also vetoed a $600,000 state grant for the town’s water main replacement program.
Operating expenses have increased by 7%, driven by contract obligations, insurance costs, and utility expenses.
Which brings us to property taxes — the money coming directly from residents and businesses. Let’s play good news, bad news.
The good news is that the tax rate will stay the same, at $5.40 per $1,000 of taxable property value. The town is using almost $2 million from its reserves to balance the budget and cover the added capital projects.
The bad news is that residents' taxes are still going up, thanks to a 10.14% increase in property values.
Homesteaded properties won’t see more than a 3% increase thanks to the Save Our Homes state law. The increase for commercial properties and non-homesteaded residential properties is capped at 10%.
Heiser said the extra $1 million added to the budget from estimates in July is due to the commission's decision to address the water main issue and an emergency caused by poor hydrant pressure along State Road A1A from Ocean Avenue south to Thompson Street.
In July, she said, a $13.3 million budget estimate for 2025-2026 fiscal year reflected that the town was just going to design what is called Phase 4 of the project, but now shovels will pierce the ground in January.
Comments
When I joined the commission in 2020 we were talking about the aging waterlines, constant water main breaks and the rising cost to the Town of owning the waterlines.
A comprehensive plan was discussed to a. get money from Boynton Beach to address watermain repairs, since we are paying the same exact rate BB residents do while BB maintains the waterlines at that same price. We basically pay more for the water although on paper it is the same. B. to find a long term solution where BB either takes over our waterlines as part of their service or what really was the proper way to discuss sewer service along with water service from BB.
The problem was that the very people who were trying to negotiate with BB and discuss the greater picture were rudely cut off by the current seated commission and all discussions ended.
In fact, Ocean Ridge does not have a current contract with BB for water service, the expired contract is simply being extended automatically month after month.
Taking money from the reserves for capital projects like this leaves the town vulnerable to emergency needs. The $2M should have been funded a long time ago through added property taxes specifically for a water/sewer fund.
This commission however is incapable of looking at long term solutions and rather use fix-a-flat instead of replacing a tire that has no thread left!
Not properly budgeting for the improvements you need to make is about the same stupidity as cutting Medicare and Medicaid from 40 Million people so 500 Billionaires enjoy tax cuts. OR enjoyed low taxes for decades and did not budget for 70-80 year old waterlines we all knew were failing soon. Time to pay the piper.
The residents of Ocean Ridge deserve better from their government.