Town adopts budget with state-mandated reductions
By HARLAN WEIKLE
Article published on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007  |
BELLEAIR – Following a budget presentation by Town Manager Micah Maxwell that opened the Sept. 19 meeting, the Town Commission by unanimous vote set the millage rate of 4.2551, generating $3.36 million in ad valorem dollars and adopted a budget for 2007-08 of $7.5 million.
A capacity audience listened as Maxwell addressed the bones of the budget, which this year was mandated by the state Legislature to be rolled back to last year’s revenue levels. Maxwell told the audience, “We moved back to the rollback rate and then reduced that number by an additional 5 percent, which, he added, “equated to a little over $500,000.”
On the expenditure side of the accounts, some of the cuts listed by Maxwell included a layoff of one town employee, a reduction in overtime hours and the elimination of the town mechanical department.
Revenue changes included a recreation fee of $30 for residents who use the Dimmitt Community Center as well as an increase from $65 to $95 for nonresidents.
A plan to increase town revenue by raising the development permit fee from 1 percent to 2 percent was put on hold for further deliberation. The current fee, the lowest in Pinellas County, has not been changed in 17 years, according to Mayor Gary Katica. Katica, who supported the hike, has said that the town should increase the fee in order to be somewhere in the middle of the range of fees collected by other towns.
Recently the new owners of the Belleview Biltmore Resort, Legg Mason Real Estate Investors, had asked the commission to reconsider raising the fee. Maxwell is discussing with LMREI the fee structure, which at 2 percent could potentially cost the investors an extra $1 million.
“We’ll probably come up with some kind of cap,” Katica said.
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Article published on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007
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