Property taxes in Bradenton Beach are going up.
With a 4-1 vote July 21, Bradenton Beach commissioners set a tentative 2.3329 millage rate for the 2016-17 fiscal year — $2.33 per $1,000 of property value — effectively raising property taxes 9.18 percent over the present year.
Mayor Bill Shearon was the opposing vote. He said he would adopt a higher millage rate if he could.
Shearon’s desire for higher taxes comes from his insistence against a deficit budget. He said the finalized budget approved by the commission July 15 puts the city $205,827 in the hole.
Several projects in the city are creating the deficit, including new vehicles and gear for the police department and the multi-year SUNTrail — a project to widen main island roads to include walking and biking lanes, with a completion date of 2040.
Shearon questioned city treasurer Shayne Thompson about the deficit at the July 21 meeting. “With this millage, will expenses exceed spending? Will reserve funds decrease under this budget?” he asked.
Yes, was the answer from Thompson, but Vice Mayor Ed Straight and Commissioner Jake Spooner were quick to point out the spending will come from funds set aside these purposes.
“Why put it in there to start with if you’re not going to use it?” Straight said. “Any time you put money into the general fund then you can’t use it. Otherwise you’re decreasing your general fund.”
“We’ve already saved that money for these specific reasons. It just happens to be that all these capital improvement projects are going to be happening next year,” Spooner said.
In the proposed budget:
• $60,000 will be moved from the $330,000 cell tower reserve fund to pay for upgrading police department communications.
• $70,000 will be moved from a sanitation vehicle fund to purchase two new police cruisers. The fund was created in 2011 to buy a garbage truck.
• $30,000 for street-end improvements, such as clearing of right of ways, will come from the $210,797 the city received in its BP oil spill settlement.
• $54,400 will be moved from the community redevelopment agency fund and gas tax reserve to be invested into the SUNTrail.
“If you take that out of it, our revenue is greater than our expenses. If you take out all the capital spending that we’ve saved for and look at what we’re spending it on, then there is no deficit,” Spooner said.
By moving funds, the city will net $8,423, Spooner said.
The city has $1,336,558 in unreserved funds.
At $2.33 mills, a property valued at $500,000 will be taxed $1,165. Millage is $1 per $1,000 of assessed value.
To avoid raising property taxes, the city must adopt the 2.14 mill rollback rate or less.
The rollback rate is the millage needed to produce the same revenue as the current budget year.
At the millage rate of 2.33, the city will increase revenue, and subsequently spending, by $120,127.
The deadline to approve an ordinance for the millage rate and report it to the Manatee County Tax Collector is Aug. 4.
Bradenton Beach budget matters
2016-17 budget
Total proposed budget expenditures: $3,080,738
Total proposed budget revenues: $2,874,911
Proposed reserve spending: $205,827
Approved millage rate: $2.33
Rollback rate: $2.14
Percent of increase: 9.18
Total assessed property value: $510,995,936
2015-16 budget
Budget expenditures: $3,000,855
Budget revenues: $2,814,336
Reserve spending: $186,519
Millage rate: $2.33
Rollback rate: $2.15
Assessed property value: $467,736,000
Budget hearing dates: First reading of millage is scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8, at Bradenton Beach City Hall, 107 Gulf Drive N.