MARK SCHUMANN

Ending four days of workshops on the 2014-15 budget, the Vero Beach City Council yesterday left the city’s tax rate unchanged at 2.0336 mills.  The city’s tax rate, one of the lowest in the state, equates to approximately $2.03 per $1,000 of taxable property value.

Mayor Richard Winger, concerned that the 2014-15 budget falls short in funding for road maintenance and for additional storm water outfall filters, urged the Council to tentatively set the millage rate at 2.1336 mills.  The additional one-tenth of a mill would have raised another $200,000.

At $200,000, road maintenance spending will be one-fourth of what Public Works Director Monty Falls said is needed to fund road resurfacing on a 15-year replacement cycle.  Spending on new filters for storm water outfalls will be cut from $150,000 to $50,000, as $100,000 is diverted to repair a failed culvert at 27th Avenue and the main relief canal.

The Council voted to cut nine positions in the electric and water and sewer departments, but added one position in the Clerk’s office and one in the warehouse.

By law, the Council must notify the property appraiser of the maximum millage rate it will set for the coming fiscal year.  When the budget is formally adopted in September, the tax rate can be set lower, but not higher.

Councilwoman Amelia Graves agreed with Winger that the proposed budget is, as Winger put it, “sailing too close to the wind.” The projected surplus is just $170,000, on a $132.6 million budget. Vice Mayor Jay Kramer and Councilwoman Pilar Turner, both possible candidates for re-election in November, opposed increasing the city’s tax rate.

Turner pointed to the city’s $9 million in unrestricted reserves. Kramer said that, because of the projected increase in property values, leaving the tax rate unchanged amounts to a tax increase.  Based on the property appraiser’s projections, the current tax rate of 2.0336 mills will, in fact, raise an additional $164,000.

Councilman Craig Fletcher was absent for the vote.  After a 2-2 tie on the proposed increase, the Council vote 4-0 to leave the millage rate unchanged.

During public comment, city resident Mark Mucher urged the Council to increase the millage rate in order to begin reducing the $5.6 million transfer from the electric utility to the general fund.  “Anybody with any brains knows that our tax rate is artificially low because of higher electric rates,” Mucher said. “We are going in the wrong direction,” he added.

The 2014-15 budget calls for additional direct and administrative transfers from the electric fund totaling $242,571, further increasing the city’s dependence on utility revenue to help pay for general fund services such a police protection, parks and recreation.