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The property tax rate will remain the same. The budget becomes final after a vote Sept. 20.
By CHRISTINA HEADRICK
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 7, 2001
CLEARWATER -- Despite squabbling about cuts being pushed by Commissioner Ed Hart, the City Commission on Thursday approved a $247-million spending plan next year.
The budget for the 2001-2002 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, keeps the city's property tax rate at the same level of about $5.50 per $1,000 of taxable property. Owners of homes that have increased in value will pay higher taxes under the same rate.
The budget will become official after a second vote Sept. 20.
Earlier this week, Hart unveiled a proposal to cut up to $2.6-million from the city budget so that the property tax rate could be reduced next year, a move that fellow commissioners criticized as coming at the "eleventh hour," after summer budget workshops.
"I was not trying to grandstand or anything of that nature," said Hart, whose term expires in March. "The whole idea of the exercise is that if we want to get there, there are ways for us to make the cuts."
The commission responded by approving more than $200,000 in trims to the budget while rebuking Hart for claiming the rest of the commission was only out to seek "creative ways to justify raising taxes."
"This whole thing is designed to make us look bad," Mayor Brian Aungst said. "This is such a distraction from us doing our job when we have to deal with this kind of nonsense."
Commissioner Hoyt Hamilton said he was tired of insinuations and speculation. He suggested some of Hart's proposed cuts, such as pulling out of a Tampa Bay area business development council, didn't make sense.
City Manager Bill Horne wasn't happy, either. He called Hart's proposal a "ruse" earlier in the week, although on Thursday he apologized for use of the term. Horne rephrased his commentary and said that making large cuts in the next two weeks would be a "very sporting proposition."
Aungst contended that cutting the property tax rate this year would put the city in worse shape next year, when new jobs will be added to keep the Police Department fully staffed, to staff a northwest Clearwater fire station and to run a recreation center in North Greenwood, to name a few new expenses.
"It's a superficial and artificial cut in the millage rate that you will pay for double in the next year," Aungst said.
Tina Wilson, the city's budget director, said Hart's cuts might require up to 37 additional jobs to be dropped from the city's payroll -- which would be on top of roughly 25 positions that were already being cut to balance the city's budget for next year.
Other suggested cuts would have to be taken from money the city spends on landscape maintenance or crime scene processing, Wilson said.
The benefit would be a savings of about $26 to the average homeowner, Wilson said.
Commissioner Whitney Gray had the most personal exchange with Hart. Her voice quivered as if the words were difficult.
Gray said she was very disappointed that she had asked Hart for information about his proposed cuts and was told it was not available. Then she saw his notes printed in a beach newspaper Thursday morning.
"That really hurt," Gray saidand added that was not the kind of thing a team player would do.
Hart responded that he wanted to be a team player.
The biggest chunk of the budget is the city's $88-million general fund, which receives property taxes and other revenues and pays for nuts-and-bolts city operations such as libraries and police patrols. About half of the general fund goes to the city's police and fire departments.
The general fund's expenses are about 6 percent higher this year, a jump attributed largely to staffing new city facilities and paying higher insurance costs for employees and wage increases.
The city has $61-million budgeted for major construction projects, including the start of construction on the new Memorial Causeway bridge, main downtown library, the new recreation center in North Greenwood and sewer system improvements.
Although the property tax rate is not increasing, the commissioners have already approved annual increases of about 4 to 7 percent in fees residents pay for water and sewer collection, garbage pickup and stormwater drainage.
Take the assessed value of your home and subtract the $25,000 homestead exemption if it applies. Then divide by 1,000 and multiply by the city tax rate of 5.5032 mills. An average Clearwater home with a $92,300 value would pay $370.37 in taxes. Your city taxes are about one fourth of your total bill.