SAFETY HARBOR - The city has put together a budget that leaves the property tax rate the same and produces about $194,000 more than last year.
Safety Harbor commissioners gave preliminary approval Tuesday night to keeping the property tax rate for the next fiscal year at about $2.97 per $1,000 of assessed, nonexempt property value. Property taxes are the largest single source of revenue for the general fund. The budget will go up for final approval on Sept. 15.
City officials are proposing a general fund budget of $16.9-million for the 2003-2004 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. That's pretty close to this year's revised budget. Operating expenses only went up about 1 percent.
"We held everybody," finance director JoAnne Ryan said. "All the department heads really tried because it was such a tight budget year to keep operating expenses as low as possible."
The proposed budget shows general fund reserves at $6.7-million, which includes a $1-million transfer from the Parkland Fund. The cost of a new soccer complex was reduced because of the city's partnership with Clearwater.
Still, officials took about $397,000 from the reserves to balance the budget.
"I would just say that's more due to the economy than anything else," Ryan said. "Normally we project revenues conservatively and hopefully we don't spend 100 percent of expenditures. We have to budget it that way."
More than $9-million has been budgeted from the five-year capital improvement plan for sidewalks, drainage, the downtown parking lot and neighborhood projects.
City officials also included in the budget $15,000 for the Safety Harbor Regional Museum of History. They have also agreed to match funds raised by the museum up to $25,000. The museum had initially asked for $40,000.
Personnel costs increased by 9 percent, mainly because of rising health insurance costs and increased rates for employees enrolled in the Florida retirement system. Expenses for the sheriff's department also increased by about 20 percent to $152,000. Water and sewer rates remained the same.
The proposed budget only includes adding one city position, an EMS coordinator within the fire department. There was not enough extra funding to hire another deputy and firefighter and improve staffing at the library, according to City Manager Wayne Logan. About $270,000 to $300,000 would have been needed to address those issues. Funding for those items will be reviewed in the future.
Balancing the budget wasn't easy, especially in a tight economy.
"I'm sure we didn't face any challenges other cities haven't faced," Ryan said. "It's tough in this economy to put a budget together. I think the staff did a great job to try to keep costs down."
