SEWALL\u2019S POINT \u2013 The Town Commission majority here formally set the $15.4 million 2027 Fiscal Year Budget and 3.27 millage rate to fund it with on Sept. 3, despite unsuccessful efforts by Commissioner Frank Tidikis to convince his colleagues to use the rollback rate instead, the property taxes needed to equal the same funding raised the previous year.<\/p>\n
Finance Director Maria Pierce introduced the two companion agenda items that evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Town held a budget workshop on Aug. 8 where I presented the budget in brief for Fiscal Year 2027,\u201d she said. \u201cAt the workshop, we discussed specific line items that were questioned, [and] I answered to the best of my ability at that time. The copy of the budget in brief is on the website for residents to view. At this meeting, we have to adopt the tentative millage and budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pierce then recited the exact ad valorem statutory language required by the State of Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe proposed millage rate of 3.27 mils is greater than the rollback rate of 3.0477 mils by 7.29 percent,\u201d she continued. \u201cThen we\u2019ve got Resolution 10003-26, and staff is asking the Commission approve the tentative millage rate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Frank Fender immediately a motion for approval, which was seconded by Commissioner Dave Kurzman. Commissioner Tidikis then launched a lengthy discourse while referencing a spreadsheet he\u2019d prepared for each of his fellow Commission members.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to address the millage rate,\u201d he said. \u201cI sat down with Ms. Pierce and went over this, and I adjusted it to her numbers where appropriate. If you look at the first revenue line, the Town of Sewall\u2019s Point projected the 2026 [General Fund] revenue at $4,548,000, which is greater than the revenue for the 2027 budget. I think what we\u2019re doing is overstating revenue and understating expenses.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, that is a conservative statement, right?\u201d Commissioner Fender interjected.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes it is,\u201d Tidikis agreed. \u201cIt\u2019s a question of how conservative do you want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
The latter continued with his argument.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the operating expenses for the 10 months and projected out for 12 months, we\u2019re 11.2 percent below the budgeted amount for 2027,\u201d he explained. \u201cIf you look at the variance analysis, there\u2019s some pretty hefty increases in the various departments. If you take what we\u2019re anticipating coming in on the revenue and the operating expenses, we will have a surplus roughly of $405,000. I\u2019m suggesting we take half of that and apply it to a millage reduction. So, rather than adopt the millage rate as it currently is, I\u2019m suggesting a rollback rate of. .017 mils.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Barile then noticed Pierce making her way to the podium.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou must have read my mind,\u201d he said. \u201cDo you have an answer for this?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have an answer to the rollback rate,\u201d the finance director said. \u201cThat being said, I do believe at the budget workshop we talked about addressing the reserves for the town after the budget was adopted and looking at where we finished the year at. With the number I provided to Commissioner Tidikis earlier, I would like to point out we\u2019re at $6 million right now with all the funds combined.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the request of Town Manager Robert Daniels, Pierce provided more details of the three funding sources that make up the total budget amount.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the Discretionary fund and the General Fund,\u201d she said. \u201cWith that, the revenues that go into the capital fund, if they\u2019re invested, the interest goes into the Capital Fund. Whatever revenues are invested in the General Fund, that interest is going to be placed into the General Fund. If you want to bring your revenues to pinpoint what we\u2019re really seeing and use every single line and adjust it, you can, but there\u2019s variances, and we could end up with a surplus and you could end up with a deficit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniels also offered his perspective on the potential impacts of a millage reduction to the ongoing South Sewall\u2019s Point resiliency work being funded by the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hoping within the next week we\u2019ll finally get the HMGP documentation we need,\u201d he said. \u201cComing off from where we were in a cash-flow crunch and having to borrow money to make sure we could meet our liabilities, she\u2019s taken the conservative approach, which I agree with. If we overstate our expenses, ultimately at the end of the year we\u2019re going to be in a situation where we don\u2019t have to worry about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his part, Mayor Barile worried the rollback millage rate might hamper future grant applications.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we cut back on that, that means that we have to borrow more money to apply for grants?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo match the grants, correct,\u201d Daniels replied.<\/p>\n
The remaining commissioners then responded to Commissioner Tidikis\u2019 request, beginning with Vice-Mayor Kajia Mayfield.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think rolling back the millage rate is fundamentally a good idea,\u201d she said. \u201cAfter the projects are done, I would definitely revisit it, but I don\u2019t think it makes sense when we have been working for years to try to get adequate funds to take care of these projects. I would also need a little more time to digest and look over your spreadsheet, but I appreciate all of the backup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Fender, in turn, added his insight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am in favor of the rollback, and I\u2019m super appreciative of Frank\u2019s work,\u201d he said. \u201cThe mitigating issue right now is, I\u2019m also a budgetary conservative and appreciate having the wiggle room. This would be awesome when we didn\u2019t have the last phase of the flood mitigation pending. So, there\u2019s still major capital projects coming down the pike that we want to make sure don\u2019t get impacted. Thirdly, we\u2019ve got Amendment 3 right around the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Dave Kurzman agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m leery about doing anything right now,\u201d he said. \u201cAmendment 3 \u2013 we don\u2019t know what the outcome\u2019s going to be \u2013 and I don\u2019t want to fall short on the project. Those are the two major concerns that I have right now. I don\u2019t know what we\u2019re going to spend next year and the year after if Amendment 3 does pass. We\u2019re going to be in pretty bad shape.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Tidikis final argument failed to persuade them any further, and one of the two public speakers, Delano Lane resident Scott Craft, opposed lowering the millage rate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see is a lot of outcry from the public about lowering the taxes,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom what I hear, they\u2019re pretty happy that you\u2019re keeping the rate where it\u2019s at. I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to have too much money: There are going to be a lot of things that come up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Town Commission then voted 4-1 to approval both the millage rate and budget in two separate resolutions, with Tidikis dissenting on both. The Board will hold its final budget hearing on Sept. 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEWALL\u2019S POINT \u2013 The Town Commission majority here formally set the $15.4 million 2027 Fiscal Year Budget and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[326,171,173,172],"class_list":["post-392481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-martin","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}