MILTON — Santa Rosa County property owners might see a 3 percent increase in their property taxes if commissioners decide to give county employees raises.
Commissioners hosted two budget workshops Tuesday to hear requests from the county’s constitutional officers and department heads for fiscal 2013-14.
The county has suspended cost of living and merit pay increases for the past seven years, and did not include raises in its proposed budget for next year.
“Our budget is balanced, it’s just not balanced including a merit increase,” County Administrator Hunter Walker said. “It would cost around $1.3, $1.4 million to reinstitute the merit pay that’s been suspended the last number of years. That would require an increase in the millage.”
Much of the first budget workshop focused on raises for county employees. All the constitutional officers said they would support the commission raising the tax rate.
Sheriff Wendell Hall said the lack of a merit increase was starting to have a negative affect on his office.
Hall said deputies have a starting salary of $30,555. That is less than starting salaries for the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, the Okaloosa County Jail, Fort Walton Beach Police Department, Gulf Breeze Police Department and the Pensacola Police Department. It also is just $21 more than the starting salary of Milton police officers.
“Five years ago, I used to say we were still in the ball game,” Hall said. “We were still competitive and the reason being is we could say, ‘We may start you a little lower, but we guarantee you these step raises. You’re going to get this 5 percent every year.’
“The sad thing about this is people that started five years ago are still making the same salary,” he added. “We don’t have that carrot (of guaranteed raises) anymore and it’s affecting us.”
Turnover at the Sheriff’s Office has gotten worse since the pay increases stopped, Hall said. In 2010, four deputies resigned and four others retired. Already this year nine deputies have resigned and six have retired.
“This has become a priority,” Hall said. “We have to do something this year. We find other things important, but I do not think any of you would get any repercussion from the majority of the voting public and the majority of the citizens of the county if they had to pay a little bit more to fund these increases.”
Clerk of Court and Comptroller Donald Spencer also asked for step increases for his employees, and said he supported an increase to the county’s millage rate to fund them.
The average salary at the clerk’s office is $26,331, the same as it was four years ago, Spencer said. However, because of inflation he estimated they have $2,222 less spending power than they did four years ago.
“The price of gas isn’t going down. The price of food at the grocery store is going up,” Spencer said. “We have a lot of employees that are barely making ends meet.”
Commissioners voted unanimously at the end of the second workshop to advertise a property tax rate of 6.2793 mills in the county’s Truth in Millage notice that will go out early next month. That would give a salary increase to all county employees.
This year’s tax rate is 6.0953 mills.
If approved, next year’s rate would be about an $18 increase for every $100,000 of taxable property value.
“It’s not guaranteeing to any of the employees of the constitutional officers or the BOCC (Board of County Commissioners) employees that the merit increase would be made this year, but it’s keeping our options open,” Commissioner Lane Lynchard said.
Contact Daily News Business Editor Dusty Ricketts at 850-315-4448 or dricketts@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @DustyRnwfdn.