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The increase translates into $80 more a year on a home that has a taxable value of $200,000.
By MICHAEL SANDLER
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 9, 2001
TAMPA PALMS -- Boasting resumes that rival today's Fortune 500 CEOs, homeowners came forward to offer the Tampa Palms taxing authority advice on spending their money.
But by night's end, the wisdom behind decades of private-sector experience was silenced by the most divisive words in public service: increase taxes.
With a 3-2 vote, the board of the Tampa Palms Community Development District grudgingly approved Wednesday a modest increase in the millage rate for homeowners.
Supervisor Curtis Stokes convinced two other supervisors to support his motion, which would raise the rate to 3.0 mills from its past rate of 2.6. The increase translates into $80 more a year on a home that has a taxable value of $200,000. Supervisors Andy Miller and Mark Hensleigh supported the motion, while Mark Fitzpatrick and Ed Copeland dissented.
The board also voted 4-1 to approve a budget that would spend $1.8-million next fiscal year, about $400,000 more than for the current fiscal year, which will end this month. Nearly $800,000 of the budget would be used to cover employee salaries and benefits. Fitzpatrick was the lone dissenter.
However, the motion was approved only after supervisors agreed by a 4-1 vote to earmark $440,000 for 18 potential capital improvement projects and eliminate $150,000 in operating expenses (Hensleigh dissented).
The first of two public hearings lasted 4 hours and 22 minutes and was marred by constant bickering over how the budget could be reduced. The final decisions will be made Sept. 18, when the board officially votes at the second public hearing.
In addition to the infighting on the board, supervisors faced a staff that seemed unwilling to reduce expenditures across the board. Several of the 25 people in the audience also sought spending cuts. Three of the homeowners said they had previous experience as chief financial officers or chief executive officers for multimillion-dollar companies. One even served in the Illinois Legislature.
Stokes insisted the increase had plenty of support.
"There's 2,000 people (living) here," he said. "I don't think the five people who spoke here tonight represent the community."
Fitzpatrick, the board's chairman, immediately countered. "I think they do." He went to extraordinary lengths to delay the motion. Each time supervisors spoke out in favor of the millage hike he asked them to justify their reasons, often interrupting them.
The vote came only after one supervisor became exasperated.
"This is a board," Miller told Fitzpatrick. "It's been discussed. It's been hashed. It's been thrown against the wall and splattered. Let's vote!"
Such debate is not surprising in a community that has not raised its millage tax in nearly 10 years. In recent months, Hensleigh has led an effort to invest more in neighborhoods and put Tampa Palms on par with Disney's resort communities.
But there's a price for Canary Island date palms and bushes sculpted into animal shapes.
To attain that, CDD manager John Daugirda and field superintendent Tom Picciano proposed a budget that increased spending to $1.832-million, up from $1.425-million this past year.
The taxing district could expect to take in $1.427-million in ad valorem taxes with the new rate. The proposed budget also seeks to spend about $323,000 in surplus money from this year's budget, along with $80,000 in other revenue generated by interest, park membership fees, excess fees and non-ad-valorem assessments.
"It's a level of service," said Daugirda. "You have to stay within your limits, but you set the limits."
Daugirda also presented a budget at the 2.6 rate that proposed spending $1.64-million. The operating expenses would be the same, but the district would have very little money for capital improvements, he said.
Hensleigh has said the district wouldn't have to raise taxes if it could use additional reserve money earned from interest on the bond payments, which totals about $1.1-million. Traditionally, that money has been set aside for an emergency.
"What are we going to do, hang on to them forever?" Hensleigh said by phone after the meeting. "We can always spend more money than we take in, and make up the balance with the reserves. No one has addressed that. I tried to bring it up two months ago, and it was swept under the rug."
Instead, his colleagues voted to increase the revenue from homeowners.
But some want to see a plan before endorsing higher taxes. Several came with their own projections and asked the board to compare spending with neighboring communities like Hunter's Green.
Spending more than you earn did not make sense to businessmen like John Okkerse, a retired executive with SmithKline Beecham, and Gene Field, a former CEO and CFO for business units of ITT and Textron, a manufacturer of engineered parts.
"You are proposing a budget your income can't match," said Okkerse. "Some of your line items, quite frankly, are absurd."
"We've asked them to identify the mission and the objectives to what they are accomplishing, and they have none," said Field, who has handled budgets of $150-million. "The only thing we've heard is to try and make the community look Disneyesque."
The proposed budget fell short of the needed capital improvements, allotting only $290,000 for replacement projects and equipment instead of $440,000. The staff would spend $1.541-million on operating expenses.
To make up the difference, the staff appeased the board by agreeing to make some cuts before the final public hearing.
But not everyone was pleased. Fitzpatrick said he plans to pack the room with homeowners before they can make the vote official.
"I truly think we are doing a disservice to the community," he said, "and I am embarrassed to be a part of a board that raised the millage to 3.0."
- Michael Sandler can be reached at (813) 226-3472 or sandler@sptimes.com.