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Budget road ends with hike in tax rate

The plan, with about a 21 percent tax rate increase, faces final approval Sept. 25.

DADE CITY - After a hot summer of budget battles, city commissioners emerged Thursday night with a spending plan, settling on a balanced budget and the first tax rate increase in 13 years.

Budget season began with warnings of a $1.4-million shortfall and lurched through contentious hearings that ended with the dissolution of the city's Fire Department. But on Thursday, commissioners approved an $8-million budget - including water and sewer funds - and a tax rate of $9 per $1,000 of taxable assessed property values.

The plan also includes a job for fire Chief Bob Cabot in an administrative post, although City Manager Harold Sample told commissioners Cabot is considering applying for the vacant Zephyrhills police chief job.

In the meantime, commissioners agreed to keep him on to help with administration at his $58,000 chief's salary.

Commissioners also agreed to bring part-time City Attorney Karla Owens on full time to serve as both attorney and planner, replacing former planner Doug Currier, at a $60,000 annual salary.

The $9 tax rate would be about a 21 percent increase over this year's rate. The rate of a prior year is usually adjusted for increased property values, but in Dade City's case, the so-called rollback rate was higher than the actual tax rate due to a dip in total taxable property values across the city.

Under the new rate, the owner of a home assessed at $75,000 with a $25,000 homestead exemption would pay about $450 in city taxes, compared to $370 under the old rate, a difference of about $80.

Under the plan crafted by Sample and his staff, the city would spend $1.56-million on police; $877,000 to dissolve the Fire Department and contract for fire protection with Pasco County; $543,000 for streets; and $422,219 on parks and recreation.

Despite the tax rate increase, no property owners rose to speak on the topic during the public hearing. The tax rate and budget passed 4-1, with Vice Mayor Bill Dennis opposed.

"You have done a beautiful job with the budget," Commissioner Eunice Penix told Sample. "I think Dade City is going to be on its way up."

The final vote on the budget comes at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 25 at the American Legion/Charles A. McIntosh hall on Church Avenue.

In other business Thursday evening, Commissioner Hutch Brock focused on figures from the Pasco County Property Appraiser's Office showing 77 percent of the property in Dade City is valued at less than $75,000, and more than half of the properties are valued at less than $50,000.

He said those figures show the city needs to redevelop from the inside. He asked Owens, as one of her first assignments as a planner, to find incentives to offer property owners so they would either renovate dilapidated homes or demolish old houses and rebuild on the property.

Sample noted that demolishing and rebuilding saves the investor thousands of dollars in county impact fees assessed on new houses.