Briny Breezes residents could see a big tax increase. Town Manager Bill Thrasher is proposing increasing the property tax rate from $3.75 to $6.75 per $1,000 of taxable value.
If that rate is adopted this year, the owner of a mobile home with a taxable value of $150,000 would pay $1,012.50 in town property taxes, a $450 increase.
Thrasher said in an email to The Coastal Star that the increase is needed to help make payments on a loan the town is seeking from the state of Florida for capital improvement projects, which include drainage improvements and enhancing the town’s entire sea wall. Given the town’s current taxable value, the $3 increase will raise about $300,000 to cover debt service payments.
“The amount of the loan has not been estimated but will be as large of a loan as a $300,000-per-year payment will allow,” he said.
Thrasher made the same tax rate proposal last year, but he pulled back and recommended keeping the rate at $3.75 per $1,000 when be realized the town couldn’t get a loan in time.
The town’s tax rate had been at the state-maximum $10 per $1,000 up until 2023, when it was reduced dramatically with some police costs shifted to the town’s corporation, Briny Breezes Inc., which then charged property owners an assessment. That was done to give room to raise the tax rate in the future for money the town would need to make debt payments on the anticipated loans.
A tentative budget hearing is set for 5 p.m. Sept. 10 at Town Hall, 4802 N. Ocean Blvd. A final hearing is set for Sept. 24.
— Henry Fitzgerald
Comments