Town of Fort Myers Beach Council approves budget with 4% millage hike
From a 26% hike, to a 16% hike and now down to a 4% millage rate increase for Town of Fort Myers Beach taxpayers after the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council approved a new budget by a 4-1 vote on Wednesday.
Councilman John King was the lone vote against the budget.
The vote, which was held after the council’s second budget hearing, followed an initial vote in which a 16% millage rate hike failed when King was the lone vote against a $56 million budget which required a unanimous vote due to the percentage of the increase above the rollback rate (28.43% above the rollback rate).
“I’m going to stand with the taxpayers that contacted me and vote no,” King said. “I can’t support an increase.” King said the town should be spending funds out of its reserves and said he rejected any millage rate increase.
Mayor Dan Allers said there would be no funding in the emergency reserve fund if the town didn’t put funds in there through the millage rate increase.
“It would be just less negative,” Finance Director Joe Onzick said. Onzick told the council that the town is still awaiting millions in funding from FEMA to be reimbursed for spending after Hurricane Ian. The town also is in debt to the state for an $11.9 million loan after Hurricane Ian.
“I feel we have to be at that 1.15 mills,” Allers said.
King refused to budge from his position.
The town council ultimately passed a new budget with a 4% millage rate increase, raising the rate to 1.0294 mills per thousand dollars of taxable property value over the existing .99 mills per thousand dollars of taxable property value.
“I don’t think it’s enough. No one wants to raise taxes. Nobody wants to pay more taxes but we are in this situation. Truly, I wish it was back to the 1.25 (mills per thousand) which I know we can’t go back to,” Councilwoman Karen Woodson said.
The council changed its budget compared to the first budget hearing where the 16% increase was put forward, over concerns about its reserves. The council was also prepared to turn back cuts to Bay Oaks Recreational Campus in the initial vote, which didn’t pass.
As a result of the 16% millage rate increase not being passed, the town will be cutting the vacant positions of fitness coordinator at Bay Oaks Recreational Campus and three part-time recreational aides in order to save $136,350 in the budget.
McKannay said the budget approved Wednesday would also ax the town’s fireworks for the Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve.
There was some initial confusion Wednesday during Finance Director Joe Onzick’s budget presentation which showed $125,000 in funding for Fourth of July fireworks being restored. During the previous budget hearing, Councilman Scott Safford had expressed opposition to a proposal to cut the fireworks out of the budget. On Wednesday, Mayor Dan Allers expressed surprise that the fireworks had been added back in, saying he believed the majority of the council didn’t support holding the Fourth of July fireworks.
McKannay said the new budget approved by town council will not contain funding for any fireworks during the upcoming New Year’s eve or for the Fourth of July, or any parade either.
Vice Mayor Jim Atterholt, who had voted against the 16% hike at the first budget hearing, said he supported it on the second hearing because he believed the funds wouldn’t roll back the proposed cuts of about $1.2 million but instead would be used to buttress the town’s reserves and be used for matching funding for state grants. Those grants would support town infrastructure projects including work on the town’s roads, water tower and stormwater drainage. The state approved $1.2 million in matching grant funding for the work this year, which means the town needs to match that $1.2 million in funding.
According to McKannay, the 16% millage rate increase would have given the town an additional $458,000 for matching grants. Under the budget adopted Wednesday, there will only be approximately $88,000 to go towards matching grants.
Allers said he was concerned that the town would be vulnerable without enough reserves with another month left in the hurricane season and another hurricane season which will begin next year before the town’s next budget is approved next year.
“I think we are leaving ourselves really open to some potential dangers,” Allers said.
Atterholt said he thought it was important to communicate to the public that the town was making the “tough choices” by making the budget cuts.
“My correspondence on this issue was overwhelmingly against a tax increase,” Atterholt said. Atterholt said he was able to support the 16% millage rate increase provided the funds would go into the town’s emergency reserves.
Onzick said the town would have to go deeper into what is left of the state’s $11.9 million loan.
McKannay said the town will be using $1.7 million from the state’s $11.9 million approved after Hurricane Ian. That leaves the town with $2.3 million remaining from the loan.
The rate of 1.15 mills would have generated the town an increase of $719,287 in revenue whereas the 1.0294 millage rate will bring the town $177,149 more in revenue than what it would have received by keeping the millage rate flat.
Of the $177,149 in additional revenue, Onzick said $88,574 will go into the town’s reserves and the other have will go into matching the state’s grants for the infrastructure spending.
“87,000 will probably buy us a swing set,” Safford said.
The council also approved increasing fees for most permits and also user fees at Bay Oaks and the mooring field.
The cost of a development agreement will go up from $5,000 to $5,500 while an amendment to a development agreement will go from $2,500 to $3,000. The town’s development agreement process has undergone scrutiny over the past year as it was used under the Seagate condo tower review.
The budget hearing brought forth just two speakers, Tom Torgerson and Ellen Vaughan. Both Torgerson and Vaughan expressed support for the 16% millage rate in order to avoid deeper cuts to the budget and in order to support staff at Bay Oaks.
One major budget item not discussed was a proposed $150,000 increase for the town’s legal representation Vose Law Firm that is part of the town’s budget calculations. The law firm has sought a 50% increase in their annual fee from $300,000 annually to $450,000. The council still needs to approve a new contract with the firm for the new rate to take effect. The town has budgeted $424,000 for legal expenses.