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City shrinks budget, lowers its tax rate

By Times Staff Writer
Published September 1, 2007

TARPON SPRINGS

City commissioners on Thursday evening tentatively approved a trimmed budget and lowered tax rate for the coming year.

As mandated by the state Legislature, the city cut 5 percent from its tax rollback rate, bringing the millage rate for 2007 to 4.3089, said finance director Arie Walker. She said that was a 10 percent decrease from the 2006 millage rate of 4.7957.

Each mill equals $1 for every $1,000 in taxable assessed value.

While many local governments are facing budget woes as a result of the state's property tax cuts, Tarpon officials said they were able to balance the coming year's budget by freezing unfilled staff positions and drawing from unspent revenue.

CLEARWATER BEACH

Strip of BeachWalk will soon be open

Clearwater Beach visitors are about to get a better look at the city's $30.4-million BeachWalk initiative.

Sometime next week, the city will open about 600 feet of beachside promenade from the Pier 60 parking lot south to the lifeguard station. Another 1,200-foot strip along the beach stretching from the lifeguard station to the Barefoot Beach House will open the following week.

S Gulfview Boulevard and the limestone promenade east of it won't be open yet. The strips are designed to make the beach a more attractive destination. The project also will feature a game table area, decorative showers, greenery and seating areas to watch the sunset.

NEW PORT RICHEY

With account frozen, workers still get paid

The locked doors at Net Trust Financial were the first sign that something was amiss Friday morning. Employees called the company's phone number and got a recorded message.

Net Trust Financial owner Bruce Gattis said the company's bank account had been frozen because an employee was making too many errors entering customers' checking account data.

Gattis said he'd been paying the roughly 20 or so employees out of his own pocket for two months, because of the problems with the company account. After one telephone interview Friday evening, he called back to say he'd talked to his lawyer and decided to send employees their checks, using his own money.

[Last modified September 1, 2007, 00:26:37]