FORT WALTON BEACH — The City Council on Tuesday voted 4-3 to move forward with the proposed 2013-14 budget.
The almost $35 million spending plan would increase the property tax rate from 4.53 mills to 5.79 mills.
City Manager Michael Beedie said the tax hike would generate an additional $1.3 million for the city: $1.1 million for the city’s general fund and $209,000 for the Community Redevelopment Agency fund.
“This budget proposes to sustain the city as a whole for the long term,” Beedie said.
See a copy of the city's budget. >>
He said the budget addresses many of the city’s serious needs such as employee wages, vehicle and equipment replacement and facility repairs.
Councilmen Trey Goodwin, Bobby Griggs and John Mead voted against the budget. All three voiced strong opposition to the proposed millage rate increase and urged residents to speak out until the council’s final budget vote in September.
Goodwin said he doesn’t agree with raising taxes to fund $205,000 in employee raises and more than $250,000 in vehicle and computer replacements.
“Let’s wait until the economy justifies spending the money,” he said. “That’s what our taxpayers and residents have to do.”
Goodwin called the council’s acceptance of the budget — and the tax hike — a “train wreck waiting to happen.”
Mead said the citizens he’s spoken to don’t support a tax increase. He argued that the city still has areas where it can cut expenses.
“I’m just concerned over spending more and more money where we just don’t have to,” he said. “We’re surviving now and I’d like to see us survive until next year.”
But a majority of the council says the tax hike is overdue and necessary to sustain basic city services.
“This isn’t an expansion, this is sustainability,” Councilwoman Joyce Gossom said.
Councilman Dick Rynearson said he had reviewed the budget “line by line” and supports it 100 percent.
“I’m really proud of what the staff has done,” he said. “This is a best-value budget. It’s not a Cadillac budget.”
The council’s preliminary approval of the proposed budget came after several citizens voiced opposition to the spending plan and the tax increase.
That group included state Rep. Matt Gaetz, who lives in Fort Walton Beach, and urged the council to reject the tax increase.
Under the proposed tax increase, a property owner with $100,000 of taxable value would pay an additional $125.71 a year, or $10.48 a month. Within the city limits, 80 percent of residential properties and 34 percent of commercial properties have taxable values less than $100,000, according to city budget data.
The additional $1.3 million generated by the tax hike would be spent in a variety of areas. Among those allocations is $300,000 to offset declining Gulf Power franchise fee revenues and $205,000 for employee raises up to 3.75 percent, depending on tenure.
Other expenditures covered by the tax increase include $41,000 for computer replacements; $36,000 for facility repairs and maintenance; $61,000 to cover debt payments on a new fire pumper truck and $216,000 for vehicle replacements.
The Police Department also would receive $45,000 for an administrative assistant to the chief, a position that was cut last year.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Kari C. Barlow at 850-315-4438 or kbarlow@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @KariBnwfdn.