“Painless.” “Smooth.”
Those two words people are rarely used when creating a budget, let alone a city budget worth more than $4 million with a nearly 9 percent increase for taxpayers.
But “painless” and “smooth” are the words Anna Maria city commissioners used Sept. 23 to describe their experience creating and finalizing the city’s 2015-16 budget.
Taxpayers will feel the pinch.
In less than 20 minutes, the commission unanimously voted to adopt the spending plan and increase the tax on property assessments by 8.82 percent.
The city’s ad valorem revenue at the approved rate went from $1,427,891 to $1,577,701.12.
The overall city budget for 2015-16 is $4,310,858.15.
After the vote, Commissioner Doug Copeland thanked Mayor Dan Murphy for his work, saying, “This is the smoothest budget process we’ve had.”
The commissioners finalized the ad valorem rate at 2.05 mills, which amounts to a tax increase on property owners. The current tax rate is 2.05 mills.
At the approved rate, a property with an assessed taxable value of $500,000 would pay $1,025 in annual property taxes.
At the rollback rate — 1.8839 mills — the same property would be taxed $941.95. The rollback rate is the minimum rate needed for the city to maintain the same revenue as the present year and avoid a tax increase.
Commissioner Nancy Yetter said the city needed to raise property taxes to continue providing services to the people of Anna Maria.
She said unforeseen costs, such as the increased cost to keep Manatee County Sheriff’s Office deputies in Anna Maria, made up her mind.
The sheriff’s contract went from $641,408 in 2014-15 to $685,626.09 for the 2015-16 fiscal year, for a 6.9 percent increase.
Commissioner Carol Carter said she believes taxpayers will understand the need for the increase. “There’s a lot of projects the city wants to do and it’ll need the infrastructure in place to do them,” she said.
Future projects include continued improvements at Anna Maria City Pier Park, renting an office for code enforcement and creating a contingency fund for the city pier.
An office for code enforcement has been budgeted at $100,000; the city pier park is budgeted for $115,000; the pier contingency fund is budgeted to receive $130,682.60.
The full city budget is available for review at city hall, 10005 Gulf Drive.