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Approval of budget requires explanations

Pinellas Park approves its $45.5-million spending plan, but first the mayor and a political challenger tangle over terms.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published September 11, 2005

PINELLAS PARK - Generally speaking, government budget hearings are rather boring with only an occasional protest from a property owner about high taxes.

But last Thursday's final approval of the Pinellas Park budget was anything but boring as Mayor Bill Mischler tangled with mayoral candidate Randy Heine over the definition of the words "rollback rate."

Heine wanted Mischler to explain the rollback rate to the audience and television viewers, but Mischler refused, deferring to the city's budget director.

Rollback rate is the tax rate that would collect the same amount of taxes as the previous year's budget. It's generally smaller than the tax rate that's being charged for the new budget because property values usually rise from one year to the next. The higher values generate more tax money, enabling larger budgets without increasing tax rates.

But the spat did not derail the process.

The council unanimously approved the $45.5-million operating budget for the 2005-06 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. The budget includes such items as $12.5-million for the Police Department and about $8-million for the Fire Department.

Another aspect of the budget that called for explanation:

The budget book shows City Manager Mike Gustafson getting a projected salary of $109,195, but Dan Katsiyiannis, the city's budget director, told Neighborhood Times that's not right. Gustafson, he said, is projected to receive the same 5.5 percent salary increase as other employees, raising his current salary of $101,862 to $107,464.

Katsiyiannis said the $1,731 discrepancy comes because he budgets a little more than straight salary to make allowances for such things as sick leave and vacation time.

But the difference in numbers was not the big issue Thursday. Heine, who says he is running against Mischler in the March election, chose to focus on terminology.

He demanded that Mischler explain the "rollback rate." Mischler, however, refused to answer, saying that if he explained it incorrectly, Heine would jump all over him. Mischler tried to defer to Katsiyiannis to explain the concept.

But Heine said he did not want to hear from Katsiyiannis, who said he had explained it twice to Heine. Heine said he wanted Mischler to explain it. The point, Heine said, was to let taxpayers know whether Mischler knew what he was talking about.

Mischler accused Heine of political grandstanding. He never answered Heine's question. Katsiyiannis did.

- Total operating budget: $45.5-million, a $2.8-million increase over last year.

- Millage rate: 5.088 mills

- One mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of taxable property value.

- A homeowner whose house is worth $125,000 and who has a $25,000 homestead exemption will pay about $509 in property taxes for the coming year.

[Last modified September 11, 2005, 01:12:29]