West Palm Beach commissioners gave final approval to an annual budget that increases property taxes while blaming the city’s budget process for not reducing the tax rate.
The $783 million spending plan approved Sept. 24 holds the city’s tax rate steady, meaning property owners will pay more as property values continue to rise.
Three of the four commissioners at the meeting expressed frustration that they couldn’t find a way to reduce the tax rate to provide residents with some financial relief.
“I’m not overly enthusiastic about this budget because I would’ve liked to have seen a small (tax rate) reduction,” Commissioner Joe Peduzzi said. “We’ve done it before. I think we probably could’ve done it again.”
The city’s property tax collections are expected to jump by 8% in the new budget year. Peduzzi and other commissioners said they had wanted to find ways to offset some of influx with a rate cut.
West Palm Beach city commissioner Joseph Peduzzi after the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency meeting where the group voted to add State Road 7 back onto a long-range plan Thursday, February 20, 2020 in West Palm Beach. (LANNIS WATERS/Palm Beach Post)
The city’s main property tax rate will remain at $8.13 per $1,000 of taxable property value for the third straight year, one of Palm Beach County’s highest rates. Residential property owners also pay a $100 fire fee.
Commissioners this summer had expressed interest in lowering the rate, but Mayor Keith James’ administration said it would be impossible while hiring extra police officers and fire-rescue workers and giving employees raises.
But as they approved the budget 4-0, commissioners complained that city administrators had gone too far in making budget plans before formally including them in the process in July.
“If we really want to, as a body, strive next year to do a millage-rate reduction that’s not something minor … we need to be doing that then throughout the entire year with (the city staff),” Commissioner Cathleen Ward said. “We don’t have this knowledge until way late in the game.”
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The city skyline on June 21, 2024, West Palm Beach, Florida.
Peduzzi agreed. “We definitely need, as commissioners, probably to get on this earlier,” he said.
Commissioner Christy Fox said that she, too, had wanted to lower the property tax rate, also known as the millage rate.
“I’m disappointed as well that we’re not able to give a millage rate (decrease) to our residents this year,” she said. “Times have been tough and everyday expenses are going up, and I know that is something that we all would have liked to have included this year.”
Fox added that she is “committed to working to make sure that we can be as efficient as possible in the coming year to hopefully be able to provide some relief for our residents.”
The amount of property taxes the city collects to finance operations has spiked by 66% in five years, from $90 million in 2020-21 to an estimated $149 million in the upcoming budget year.
West Palm Beach City Manager Faye Johnson
City Administrator Faye Johnson, who oversees the budgeting process, said the commissioners’ concerns had “not fallen on deaf ears” and that she would work to make the process more collaborative this year.
“It is not lost on me that the board preference was to have a millage reduction in this budget, and that you would like to see one for next year,” she said.
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The back-and-forth came as state lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis take a greater interest in local governments’ rapidly increasing property tax collections.
This month in Tallahassee, a special state House committee heard testimony from city and county leaders about their use of property tax revenue after being deluged with complaints from Floridians about their tax burdens.
DeSantis has been calling for a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot next year to revamp property taxes, sometimes calling for outright repeal of the levy. The House has joined in on the effort, while the Senate has so far remained on the sidelines of the debate.
Reporting by USA Today Network-Florida Capital Bureau reporter John Kennedy contributed to this story.
Andrew Marra is a reporter at The Palm Beach Post. Reach him at amarra@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: West Palm commissioners criticize budget process but OK higher taxes