By John Pacenti
A budget resolution put in front of the Ocean Ridge Town Commission by the town manager on Sept. 20 failed to deduct cuts made by elected officials at the previous meeting earlier in the month.
It was Commissioner Carolyn Cassidy who discovered the error before the commission approved the correct budget of $13,506,409.
The resolution put forth by Town Manager Lynne Ladner had the budget at $13,551,484 — a difference of $45,075.
But the commission adjusted that figure at the Sept. 9 budget meeting, making cuts by eliminating a part-time front desk position in the Building & Zoning Department and decreasing the money allocated for outside counsel.
Cassidy noticed the figure didn’t align with the spreadsheets in the agenda packet. Ladner, who was not physically at the Sept. 20 meeting, was contacted by text by Town Attorney Christy Goddeau and Ladner said indeed the amount on the budget resolution was wrong.
“You’re welcome. We just saved $45,000,” Cassidy quipped.
Ladner, contacted later by The Coastal Star, said she didn’t review the resolutions the clerk loaded into the packet that went to commissioners. The clerk had carried over the numbers from the tentative budget resolution used at an earlier public hearing in September, Ladner said, while the commission made two changes at that meeting that needed to be reflected in the final resolution.
Commissioner Ainar Aijala Jr., who was attending the meeting telephonically, was livid.
“I don’t understand why these numbers keep, you know, moving around like that,” Aijala said. “This is the budget that our town manager sent out to us and then the very same resolution. It’s embarrassing.”
At the Aug. 5 commission meeting, it was Cassidy who was livid. She said Ladner kept using net values of property rather than gross values as the state requires to determine property taxes to be collected. The commission last December had to have a special meeting to approve last year’s budget and tax rate for a second time because of the same error. It did end up leading to $58,738 more in tax revenue.
At the Sept. 20 meeting, Cassidy said that the net taxable value again was used in the narrative to the commission on revenues. Cassidy said she had Ladner correct the figures before the meeting.
“She reverted to using that net taxable value number. I don’t know why,” Cassidy said.
In a separate resolution on Sept. 20, Ocean Ridge commissioners voted to keep the same tax rate as the town had the year before, at $5.40 per $1,000 of taxable value.
Still, taxes will go up a little for homesteaded properties because property values in the town increased 10.3%.
The average home in Ocean Ridge, according to Zillow.com, is worth $1.5 million.
So for a homesteaded property that was worth $1.5 million last year, Ocean Ridge property taxes would increase by $243. Under state law, the taxable value of a homesteaded property used for a primary residence can increase only 3%.
This is not the case for commercial real estate, second homes or rental property, where the cap is 10%.
So for a non-homesteaded property worth $1.5 million last year, the tax increase will be $810.
This fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, the town will hire a lobbyist to help secure grants, and it will continue to upgrade valves on the town’s water pipes, among other capital improvements.
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