The City of Tallahassee is considering raising property taxes. Nothing is decided yet. But as Margie Menzel reports, a motion to look for savings within the city’s budget instead died in a commission workshop on Wednesday.
The hike would cost property owners about $11 per month if their homes are worth roughly $225,000.
The money would cover a projected deficit of $8.7 million, mostly due to a proposed increase in the police department’s budget. The proposal includes the addition of 20 more officers and advanced technology.
City Commissioner Curtis Richardson supports the millage increase.
“In the last 20 years, this commission has taken action only once to increase our millage rate,” he said. “And we still are the lowest -- or have the lowest millage rate among comparable-sized cities in the state of Florida.”
Local businessman Erwin Jackson questions the timing of the increase, noting that even though the city hasn’t raised millage rates in a while, it’s still brought in more money due to rising property values. Meanwhile, property owners have seen their costs increase due to rising property insurance rates. Jackson says he passes the increases on to his tenants.
“I am paying 9-10 percent every year,” he said. “The people who can least afford that are tenants, my tenants. I’m not going to pay that, so I’m going to go ahead and charge my tenants. So then I hear people come out and say, ‘affordable housing.’ Sure. My taxes went up 10 percent, my insurance went up 65 percent. There is no such thing as affordable housing.”
Commissioner Jeremy Matlow echoed Jackson’s point about rising costs, suggesting the city look for savings within the current budget rather than raising the millage rate. He says that with property values increasing, more money is coming into the city’s coffers.
“Can we come up with a balanced budget to operate within our means? I believe we can,” Matlow said. “I believe families across the city are asked to do the same thing. This is how much money you have, this is how much you can spend, so we need to be strategic about where we’re increasing costs, but also about where we’re decreasing costs.”
Matlow made a substitute motion to direct staff to bring back a balanced budget with no property tax increase. But Mayor Pro Tem Dianne Williams-Cox argued the increase is a matter of public safety.
“It’s easy to point at executive salaries, which in the grand scheme of a billion-dollar budget -- in my opinion -- is not that much,” said Williams-Cox. “How much is public safety worth? That’s the question. We’re saying we want to take our violent crime down. Who’s going to do that? Volunteers?”
Matlow’s substitute motion failed. The millage increase is still on track. The city’s next budget workshop will be on June 14th at 11:00 a.m. at the Smith-Williams Center.
