DELRAY BEACH — City officials want to assure residents that no details have yet been finalized for the upcoming overall budget, despite a decision to cut property taxes, which could impact the budgets of the police, fire, public works and parks and recreation departments.
Mayor Tom Carney, one of three members of the five-person commission that approved the new tax rate on July 25, said service cuts aren’t necessarily needed to implement the city’s rollback rate. As Oct. 1 — when the new rate would take effect — approaches, those who voted for it remain confident that other cuts can be found, cuts that won’t jeopardize the city’s public safety or other levels of service.
Carney said he supports the city’s projected budget of $187 million.
“We have extremely well-trained first responders,” Carney said. “They’re also extremely professional, so I know they’re not going to sit around and not respond to a call.”
If approved in September, the new tax rate of $5.9063 per $1,000 of assessed property value would be a rollback from the city’s current tax of $6.3611. The year before, the rate was $6.4611. That means residents would save about $67 per year per $300,000 of taxable property value.
Carney, Vice Mayor Juli Casale and Commissioner Tom Markert — all new to the commission since March — voted in favor of the rollback rate. The lower rate was something Carney had promised voters during his mayoral campaign this year. It was also something Markert had campaigned on.
Deputy Vice Mayor Rob Long and Commissioner Angela Burns voted against the new rate. Long said it would hurt the city’s level of service in multiple departments. But those on the commission who favor the rollback rate say no one wants to take away the city’s services, and that’s not what’s going to happen.
For example, Casale has proposed monetizing the city’s beach parking lots. If each of the city’s 431 parking spaces were filled at least once a day, she said, that could generate $5.5 million annually. It would be more than enough to fill the gap, which, to avoid service cuts, will depend on creativity, she said.
The proposed tariff would eliminate nearly $5 million in expected tax revenue
Because property values have risen in Palm Beach County, even keeping rates at last year’s level would generate more revenue. However, cities also have the option to roll back rates, which is what Delray Beach has decided to do.
The rate that would generate the same tax revenue as the previous year is what’s commonly called the rollback rate — which was proposed and approved at the commission’s July 25 meeting. That rate would eliminate nearly $5 million in the city’s expected tax revenue, according to a city budget presentation. But how the city will make up for that lost revenue is still uncertain.
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Since the July 25 vote, there has been a point of contention among city leaders about where the money would come from to pass the rollback rate. At the meeting where the rate was approved, the police chief, the interim fire chief, the heads of public works and parks and recreation discussed how their budgets might be affected. It’s not something that’s normally done, but City Manager Terrence Moore arranged the presentations ahead of the vote.
The police chief mentioned possibly being forced to cut back on his department’s services, and the interim fire chief talked about potentially having to limit himself to two crew members per ambulance, down from three, which was said to be the industry standard in South Florida. However, Florida Statute 401.27 states that the standard in an ambulance is two crew members.
The commission will meet again on Tuesday, August 13 at 6:00 p.m. to discuss more details about the new rate. Public hearings will then be held on Tuesday, September 3 and Monday, September 16 to review the city’s overall budget.
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Jasmine Fernández is a journalist covering Delray Beach and Boca Raton for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at jfernandez@pbpost.com and follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @jasminefernandz. Support our work. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: How will Delray Beach’s property tax cut impact residents?
