By CARRIE JOHNSON, Times Staff Writer
Published July 7, 2005
ST. PETERSBURG - City Council members have proposed giving themselves a small salary increase by bumping up the amount they receive for monthly expenses.
Included in the city's proposed 2006 budget is a $100 per month increase for expenses for the council's eight members.
In addition to their annual salary of $24,758, members currently receive $150 per month for items such as gas, mileage or entertaining people for city business.
The total increase is $1,200 per year for each member, for a total of $9,600 - about one thousandth of 1 percent of the city's $544.2-million budget.
But City Council member Bill Foster said he thinks the raise is inappropriate.
"It's not part of our contract," Foster said. "It's wasn't part of the deal when we got elected."
Council member John Bryan disagreed. He asked for the small increase earlier this year because taxes gobbled all but $80 or $90 of his monthly stipend.
"That's a tank of gas and a lunch," Bryan said. "That's not adequate for what we do."
He said he doesn't mind paying some expenses out of his own pocket but doesn't feel the $100 per month increase is too much to ask.
"This is really nickel-and-dime stuff," he said.
The increase in expenses is just one of the issues the council will consider as it enters budget season. The council is scheduled today to tentatively set the property tax rate.
Citizens will have a chance to weigh in on how they think their tax dollars are spent at two public hearings. They will be held Aug. 25 and Sept. 8, with the council scheduled to approve the budget after the second hearing.
Mayor Rick Baker has proposed a decrease in the property tax rate that would drop it to the lowest point in 20 years. He has asked the council to reduce the rate from $7.09 to $6.95 per $1,000 of taxable property value for fiscal year 2006.
It would be the first decrease in two years, after last year's rate remained the same.
That won't necessarily translate into lower taxes, however, because most of the savings will be swallowed by rising property values. But Internal Services Administrator Andy Houston said the city's goal is to ease the burden for residents.
If approved, the new rate would mean the owner of a $150,000 home with a homestead exemption would pay $869 yearly instead of $886 - a savings of $17.
"Property values have increased by more than 15 percent," Houston said. "The mayor feels it's appropriate to share the benefit with the taxpayers."
But not every council member agrees with the mayor's proposal. Council member James Bennett said he would prefer the city funnel more money to projects such as community policing.
"I've heard from a lot of people who say, "Keep my $17 and give me more police,"' Bennett said.
Bennett said he would support a smaller decrease in the property tax rate and increased funding for social services and traffic calming.
"It's good and wonderful to lower the tax rate," Bennett said. "But after four years of telling people that we don't have any money and neighborhoods clamoring for services, it's time to use some of that money to help them."
