City raises millage, utility and trash rates
By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 09/05/08
St. Augustine City Commission in special meeting Thursday unanimously passed a tentative property tax rate of 6.8232 mills dubbed "the rollback rate" in governmentspeak which will collect the same amount of money as last year.
"Instead of bringing in more revenue, we have cut expenses to make this budget work," said Mayor Joe Boles.
Property tax revenues collected in the city will jump only about $100,000, from $10.56 million in 2007 to $10.66 million for 2008. Total general fund revenue amounts to $20.5 million.
Chief Administrative Officer Tim Burchfield said that, since housing values have dropped over the past year, "Eighty to 85 percent of St. Augustine residents will see a reduction in residential taxes paid to the city."
The board also hiked utility and trash collection rates 4 percent but left fire assessment fees the same.
In the utility ordinance, higher fees were imposed for new construction, but minimum monthly rates were raised from $14 to $15.42. Homeowners who use more than 3,000 gallons per month would pay $4.24 per thousand.
Sewer rates went to $21.32 from $19.97 up to 3,000 gallons.
For trash collection, rates went up $2 per month.
City staffers said their recommendation was to raise the fire fee from 4 cents per square foot to 7 cents per square foot, but dropped that idea after objections from Commissioner Errol Jones.
Overall, the fire assessment will raise $710,500 on a total 5,825 city buildings.
The second and last public hearing on the millage rate is scheduled for Sept. 18.
Only two city residents, B.J. Kalaidy and Dwight Hines, spoke against the increases.
Kalaidy said taxes on her home had doubled, not dropped.
"We can do something to cut our taxes. This commission has not done so," she said.
Hines said the city was wasting money but when challenged strongly on that by Jones, he said, "We'll let an auditor look at this."
After the meeting he passed out copies of petitions for people to sign and send to the state Auditor General that said "serious problems exist in the management of St. Augustine city funds because of material misstatements and violations of generally accepted accounting principles."
City Comptroller Mark Litzinger said if the budget is cut any more, "We'd have to start cutting services fire, police, building code enforcement. If you want to reduce the budget, choose which one of those services you want cut."
Litzinger said the city recently was told that its sales tax returns from Tallahassee would be $60,000 less then estimated.
"We had to tighten our belts even further," he said.
Commissioner Don Crichlow said the city needs to keep up with inflation.
"Everything goes up every year," he said. "That's just a fact of life." He said city employees would get flat raises of 3 percent for the second year in a row.
"We're trying to maintain the same level of services that we've always had in St. Augustine. I'm not hearing people say cut the police department, cut the fire department," he said.
No employees would be laid off, but people retiring from certain jobs would not be replaced.
Burchfield said the city cut $1.2 million in capital expenditures, and some trucks past 10 years old will be "nursed along for another year." In addition, he said, street repairs have virtually stopped.
Hines said the city could save money by improving its record-keeping system and increasing efficiency.
"If you can optimize what you're doing now, you don't have to cut services," he said.
Jones said he wouldn't allow the city to go through a "year of suffering" while those ideas are tested.
"The ship has left the port," he said.
Bayfront resident Pat Parets asked the board to do something about the old 1842 granite seawall on Avenida Menendez, breached multiple times during Tropical Storm Fay. Downtown streets flood to a depth of nearly two feet every time a major storm hits the city at high tide.
"That's a disaster waiting to happen," she said. "The wall will become undermined. Try to find the funding for restoration or repair of that historical artifact."
City Manager Bill Harriss said there's already a "beautiful plan" for bayfront renovations, but the city doesn't have the $2.5 million to $3.5 million necessary for construction.
"We're trying to develop a plan to save the seawall," he said.
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