The city of Holmes Beach’s budgetary process for fiscal 2024-25 is underway.
City treasurer Cindy Dunham-Tozer presented a proposed $24,750,162 total budget for the upcoming fiscal year — a $742,676 decrease from the municipality’s current spending plan.
Fiscal 2024-25 will begin Oct. 1 for the municipality and it will review and adopt a budget before then.
Dunham-Tozer said the proposed budget is based on the city’s current 2.05 millage rate — tied with the city of Anna Maria for the lowest on the island — but the city might be in a position to reduce the millage for the upcoming fiscal year.
A 2.05 millage rate is a tax hike for property owners due to an 11% increase in total taxable property value over last year.
The millage is the amount per $1,000 of property value used to calculate property taxes. The owner of a property appraised at $500,000 with a 2.05 millage rate will pay $1,025 in property taxes.
The 2.05 millage would raise $732,937 more in ad valorem revenue than the city collected this year.
To avoid a tax increase, the commission would have to adopt a rollback rate, which would result in the same ad valorem income as this year.
The city has adopted millage reductions twice over the past two years, from 2.15 to 2.07 two years ago and from 2.07 to 2.05 last year, but no rollback rates.
While the proposed budget is projected to decrease from last year’s total, it will increase in some areas.
The largest proposed increase over last year is $829,631 for the Holmes Beach Police Department, mostly due to the addition of another staff member.
A new staffer would result in a $564,588 increase in personnel costs due to an additional $55,000 in proposed overtime expenses, almost $40,000 more in retirement contributions and about $140,000 more in insurance costs.
The HBPD’s proposed fiscal 2024-25 budget also includes $100,000 to pay the cost of fuel for the department’s new 28-foot-long police vessel.
The city’s proposed budget also includes new funds for water quality matters, such as $307,000 for an algae harvester vessel and $15,000 for related supplies, as well as $100,000 for an air curtain and two clean-water aerators.
The public works personnel budget features a $302,457 increase for two new employees to operate the algae harvester.
On the other hand, the proposed budget also includes a $221,830 decrease in total operating expenses and a $1,505,514 drop in total capital outlay costs.
The decrease in proposed capital outlay costs can be attributed to drops in half-cent discretionary taxes and fifth-cent gas tax improvement costs, as well as a $785,022 decrease in U.S. American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Commission Chair Terry Schaefer told The Islander July 15 that he was “generally pleased” with the city’s proposed budget at first blush and praised Dunham-Tozer’s thorough process of creating a municipal spending plan.
City commissioners will vote to set a maximum millage rate to use for fiscal 2024-25 budgeting during a special meeting at 2 p.m. Tuesday, July 23, at city hall, 5801 Marina Drive.
A finalized budget ordinance will go before commissioners for a first public hearing at 5:01 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11, at city hall.
A second, final public hearing on the budget will be at 5:01 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24, at city hall.
Livestreams of each meeting can be found on the city’s website, holmesbeachfl.org.
Holmes Beach by the numbers…
2023-24 2024-25 proposed
Total budget $25,492,838 $24,750,162
Ad valorem revenue $6,172,693 $6,905,630
State revenue $942,787 $945,902
Local revenue $9,511,001 $10,443,039
Stormwater revenue $3,269,702 $1,947,583
Carryover and reserves $11,330,956 $11,007,006
Total operating revenue $14,161,881 $13,743,156
Total operating expenses $5,158,613 $4,936,783
Personnel expenses: $7,149,041 $8,211,058
Capital outlay expenses: $4,904,514 $3,399,000