The main question seems to be: How much? Other budget suggestions include leasing the Quarry Golf Course and eliminating some salary increases.
By DAN DeWITT
Published August 14, 2003
BROOKSVILLE - The Brooksville City Council, already planning a new utility tax and sewer and water rate hikes, moved toward an even more dramatic measure Tuesday.
Council members talked about raising property taxes.
"I'm going to recommend some stuff I don't like, but it's what we have to do," said council member Ernie Wever before proposing the tax increase as well as several budget cuts.
None of the other council members spoke out against the plan. The main question seems to be whether they will add 1 mill or a half mill to the city's current tax rate of 8 mills. A mill is equal to $1 of tax on each $1,000 of real, nonexempt property.
Wever also said the city needs to unload the financially burdensome Quarry Golf Course, which he estimated will lose $47,000 this year. He suggested, and the council agreed, that the city try to lease it before Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.
Wever's final suggestion was to eliminate salary increases, except those guaranteed by the city's salary structure for additional years of service. This could be reconsidered, Wever said, if the city's reserve fund has risen to a healthy level next July.
The council will not make a formal decision on any of these suggestions until its two budget hearings in September. They are being considered because the city's revenues were about $500,000 less than anticipated, a difference that was made up partly by dipping into the city's reserve fund.
That fund was expected to be $957,000 at the end of the current fiscal year, but the new estimate is $640,000. Next fiscal year the news gets even worse, said Finance Director Steve Baumgartner.
According to a preliminary budget he presented to the council, the city's reserves would dip to $12,421 by Sept. 30, 2004.
Wever said that if the council enacted his suggestions - including the 1 mill property tax increase that would raise an estimated $275,000 - the reserve fund would be a more comfortable $350,000.
He said that the public notice of the increase should show the main reason for it: Last year the city lost a contract with the county, worth about $330,000, to provide fire service to the unincorporated area around the city.
This year, the city also received $170,000 less than expected from a tax on telephones and other communications services, Anderson said. At the same time, it had to increase payments to its employee pension fund and for workers' compensation insurance.
Brooksville has has traditionally had a higher property rate than other neighboring cities and a survey conducted in the mid 1990s showed its rate was the 25th highest in the state. Council members have long blamed this on the lack of a utility tax, which is standard in most other cities.
The council also discussed that proposal Tuesday and suggested limiting it to a 10 percent tax on residents' electric bills. This would generate about $475,000.
As recently as 1979, the city's millage rate was 9 mills. It dropped to a low of 5.999 in 1982, then began climbing, reaching 8.2175 in 1987.
The city cut that rate to 8 mills in 1997, a fact that all council members have mentioned in recent re-election campaigns.
- Dan DeWitt covers the environment, politics and the city of Brooksville. He can be reached at 754-6116 or dewitt@sptimes.com
