The Fort Myers Beach Town Council agreed to set a tentative millage rate of 0.8670 for tax year 2009-10 during its administrative agenda Monday. The action was in compliance with the state of Florida TRIM requirements and a final millage rate is expected to be adopted with the upcoming fiscal year’s budget on Sept. 9.

“We need to get this into the hands of the county by August 4,” said FMB Director of Finance Evelyn Wicks. “At the end of the last meeting, the mill rate we had discussed with the council was 0.8670. That was the number that (Town Manager) Scott (Janke) had determined would allow us to balance the budget with all the adjustments both on the revenue side and on the expenditure side. It does increase the levy by 0.590 over the roll-back rate.”

The roll-back rate -or roll-forward rate, according to some council members- is 0.8187.

“I don’t have a problem setting (0.8670) as a max millage rate,” said Councilman Bob Raymond. “Whether or not I will agree with that later is a totally different story. I’d like to hold it as close to last year’s mill rate as possible.”

Councilperson Jo List knows discussing the matter during these tough economic times is difficult.

“It’s a horrible time to talk about raising taxes,” she said. “And the other side of it is that we all want our services and our level of services to be there. So, I too am willing to set this tentative mill rate at 0.8670. But, I definitely hope through hard work that maybe we can still keep it at the roll-forward rate.”

Councilman Tom Babcock chimed in via phone.

“I’m ready to support 0.8670 as a tentative rate,” he said. “That means we will not go any higher than that. There are certainly some options to go lower but that would require some changes in how we see getting revenue for next year’s budget.

Mayor Larry Kiker was absent due to a death in the family but also was available to vote via phone before excusing himself.

“I would support Mr. Janke’s suggestion at 0.8670 and I look forward to adjusting it in the next eight weeks,” he said. “I quite agree that we have a lot hard work to do on it especially on the revenue side. That will be in light of some pretty big decisions that have to be made in the next couple of months.”

Vice Mayor Herb Acken, acting as chair of the meeting, chose his input for last.

“If I had the opportunity to make the motion, I would be frank and say 0.9,” he said. “That is honestly where I think we need to be to run this operation in the black. I feel comfortable with the 0.9 mill rate. I think anything less is running a risk.”

Beach resident Pat Smith was quick to offer her input during public comment.

“The risk that you’re taking is not only your risk when you go with a higher tax rate,” she said. “With the economy as stressed as it is and with no realistic outlook optimistically for the near-term future, then to say that you can’t take a risk with reserves that have already been built up for the past 10 years or so and use them now, that’s something you need to keep in mind very seriously here and try to go as conservatively as you can figure out how to do on this budget. Please think about the people.”

Councilperson List made a motion for Resolution 09-16, adopting the tentative operating ad valorem millage rate of 0.8670 for tax year 2009-10 for the Town of Fort Myers Beach. The motion was seconded by Councilman Raymond and passed by a 4-1 count with vice Mayor Acken dissenting.