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'07 budget is focus of 2 hearings

The public can weigh in on the county's plan to spend the revenue from property value hikes on social welfare programs and other initiatives.

By WILL VAN SANT
Published September 6, 2006

CLEARWATER - Pinellas County is awash in record property tax revenue.

Rather than seek a deep cut to the tax rate in its proposed 2007 budget, county leaders want to spend more on social welfare programs, among other initiatives.

If you want to weigh in on that approach, or any other aspect of the county's spending plan for next year, go to 315 Court St. in downtown Clearwater at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

There, the County Commission will hold the first of two public hearings on its proposed budget. The second hearing is scheduled for Sept. 19.

The spending plan totals $1.965-billion, up 12 percent over the current year. Of that amount, $777.3-million is to come from property tax revenue.

This year, $663-million in property tax income was included in the county's budget.

Record property value hikes - 20.3 percent in the last year alone - are making it possible for county leaders to spend more in areas they say have been neglected for too long.

The budget calls for spending an additional $2.7-million on monthly aid for the indigent, $1.8-million more for dental and mental health programs, $1-million for homeless programs and $10-million to create below-market-value housing.

Sizeable increases to the number of Sheriff's Office employees eats up another $5.6-million in spending.

The county is proposing a modest trim to the countywide property tax rate, which would go from about $6.80 on every $1,000 of taxable property value to $6.60.

Residents of unincorporated Pinellas will continue to pay $2.36 per $1,000 over and above the Pinellas-wide tax.

For the two-thirds of county homeowners who have the Save Our Homes cap, the reduction to the countywide rate will essentially erase tax bill increases caused by the rise in property values.

Still, the cut is meager. Given the rise in property values, the county could reduce the countywide rate to $5.72 per $1,000 and generate the same amount of revenue in 2007 as it has this year.

For more information on the budget, go to www.pinellascounty.org/budget/default.htm.

Will Van Sant can be reached at 445-4166 or vansant@sptimes.com.

[Last modified September 6, 2006, 06:52:47]