SEBASTIAN — Despite a hefty rise in property values in Sebastian, the City Council is considering levying more taxes rather than toeing the line.
The Council voted to set a maximum rate, which would bring in more tax revenue than if they rolled the rate back to collect the same revenues as last year.
Councilman Jim Hill was the lone dissenter and Councilman Richard Gillmor was absent from the meeting.
Hill said that in his 11 previous years on the Council, it has never lowered the maximum rate when it voted for the budget and millage – even though the Council always says that it could lower it if it wanted to do so.
Hill argued that with the 7.54 percent increase in property values, going with the lower tax rate would still generate $88,000 more in revenue than last year’s take. Going with the maximum rate, the city would bring in nearly $260,000.
City finance officer Ken Killgore told the Council that he expects to see an increase of 15 percent to the employee health insurance plans and the city plans to issue 3 percent cost-of-living raises to employees. In all, the additional expenses are expected to be about $183,000.
“The numbers don’t jive very well to me,” Hill said.
He proffered a compromise – a tax rate between the two – one that is more than the minimum but not as high as the maximum.
Councilwoman Andrea Coy reminded the Council that during the Great Recession, the Council cut the budget to “skin and bone.” Employees’ salaries were frozen. Staff took unpaid days off.
“We haven’t recouped our losses,” she said, adding that the city put off projects because of the lack of funds. Now that property values are climbing, Sebastian could make some headway on the postponed projects, Coy said.
In an effort to find a compromise, Killgore and City Manager Joe Griffin said they would crunch the numbers and come back with a few millage rate options and what impact each would have on the budget and on taxpayers.
The Council ultimately agreed to set the maximum rate at 3.8556 mills (essentially $3.86 per $1,000 of taxable value) for the purposes of issuing tax notices through the Tax Collector’s Office.
Budget and tax rate hearings will be held in September.
