Okaloosa County residents could see their property taxes increase by 4.3 percent in the coming fiscal year.
County commissioners voted 3-2 Tuesday to raise the millage rate by a little more than 14 cents for every $1,000 of taxable value. The tentative millage cap would increase the tax rate from 3.28 mills to 3.43 mills.
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Under state law, the final 2013-14 tax rate to be approved by commissioners in September cannot exceed 3.43 mills but can be less.
Commission Chairman Don Amunds and Commissioner Kelly Windes opposed the increase.
“I see the economy in a slight uptick,” Windes said. “That’s worth something. … I think I can wait one more year.”
Amunds said after the meeting that he won’t vote to raise property taxes because most residents he has talked to are against it.
“The citizens have been very clear to me, and I don’t work for me, I work for the citizens,” he said.
Commissioners approved the millage rate hike after County Administrator Ernie Padgett presented them with an alternative to the 10 percent increase he proposed earlier this month.
Under the increase, the average homeowner in Okaloosa County — with a taxable value of $124,031 — would pay an additional $17 in annual property taxes, or $1.46 more a month.
A homeowner with $300,000 in taxable value would pay $42 more a year and an additional $3.52 per month.
Padgett said the 4.3 percent tax rate hike would generate the money needed to cover a $1.85 million increase in Florida Retirement System contributions being passed down to the counties by the state Legislature.
He said “every penny” generated by the tax increase would be used to pay the increased retirement contributions, which he described as a “costly unfunded mandate.”
“If the board could see their way clear to tweak the millage by this amount, it will still be a very lean budget, but it will be workable,” Padgett said.
He told commissioners the deep cuts of the past five years have begun to take a toll on the county’s ability to provide quality services.
“We’ve had to hunker down … but this is the year I feel like that we can start retarding or stopping that downward trend,” Padgett said.
Commissioners Wayne Harris, Nathan Boyles and Dave Parisot supported the 4.3 percent increase.
“I don’t love it. I can live with it,” Boyles said. “I think it’s the right thing to do to keep our county healthy and sound.”
Parisot said he had pored over Padgett’s proposed budget line by line and hasn’t found a great deal of fat.
“I’m not finding any significant areas where we can cut without cutting services,” he said.
Parisot blamed the state’s repeated unfunded mandates on the need to raise property taxes.
“You can blame this one on our state Legislature,” he said.
Padgett agreed, saying state lawmakers decided the pension system needed a boost and “are sending the bill to each of the 67 counties.”
After the millage rate vote, commissioners discussed the proposed 5-cent gas tax increase, which remains unchanged in Padgett’s proposed budget.
Boyles, Windes, Harris and Parisot expressed support for an increase, although Boyles and Harris called for a 3-cent hike instead of 5 cents.
No vote was taken at Tuesday’s meeting.
Under state law, any change to the gas tax requires a supermajority of four votes.
Florida law allows Okaloosa to levy up to 12 cents per gallon of fuel sold in the county. The revenue can be used only on road construction and maintenance and certain storm water projects.
The county now levies a 7-cent gas tax.
In the next month, Padgett said he will work with his staff to make sure he can keep the proposed 3 percent salary increase for county workers in the budget. He said he is unsure if the smaller millage rate hike will allow him to give Sheriff Larry Ashley the $2 million budget increase he requested earlier in the month.
“I’ve got to get with the sheriff. That $2 million was based on if I’d got the 10 percent (millage rate increase),” he said. “I’m going to try to make it work. I’m going to do my best to recommend what’s fair to the sheriff.”
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Kari C. Barlow at 850-315-4438 or kbarlow@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @KariBnwfdn.