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Taxpayers ask for lower millage rate
With suggestions abounding for the county's $3.3-million reserve, commissioners discuss what to do with the millage rate at a budget hearing.
By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published September 16, 2005
INVERNESS - County commissioners held a budget hearing Thursday evening and discussed whether to keep the county's millage rate the same or reduce it. The meeting room at the Citrus County Courthouse was almost packed, with many people asking commissioners to lower the millage rate.
"This is runaway taxation, runaway spending, runaway growth in government," said one of the speakers, Morris Harvey, who is fiscal watch chairman of the Citrus County Council, a government watchdog group.
The meeting continued past press time.
At issue was what to do with a $3.3-million reserve in the budget. The surplus came from a 22.3 percent increase in taxable property values this year.
At a July budget hearing, Commissioners Jim Fowler and Dennis Damato suggested the reserve be spent on increased government services.
For more than a month, suggestions for ways to spend the money came through the commissioners' mailboxes.
The director of Nature Coast EMS said some of the money could be spent on a new headquarters. County Administrator Richard Wesch wrote a memo listing eight projects the surplus could fund.
His suggestions included implementing a stormwater master plan, constructing an expanded kennel for Animal Services, increasing the target fund balance for emergency reserves and paying down debt services.
At Tuesday's commission meeting, members of the Citrus County Council criticized the idea of keeping the extra money in county coffers.
Commission Chairwoman Vicki Phillips said Thursday that the extra money should be returned to taxpayers.
The current millage rate is 8.5553 mills. That means that the owner of a home assessed at $100,000 who takes the standard $25,000 homestead exemption pays $641.65 in taxes.
The final budget hearing will be at 5:01 p.m. Sept. 27 at the Citrus County Courthouse, 110 N Apopka Ave., Inverness.
Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309.
[Last modified September 16, 2005, 01:35:22]
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