The Loxahatchee Groves Town Council held its first formal budget hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 3, giving preliminary approval to a spending plan that does not raise the property tax rate or the town’s roads and drainage assessment.
The total spending plan of $12.7 million — $8.6 million without transfers, fund balances and reserves — will be finalized at the town’s second formal budget hearing Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 6 p.m.
Project Coordinator Jeff Kurtz led the council through a brief budget overview, summarizing the changes made at a series of workshop sessions over the past two months.
“You are being presented with a balanced budget, and it calls for a solid waste assessment at $450, a roads and drainage assessment at $200 per unit and a millage rate at 3.00 mills,” Kurtz said.
Early in the budget cycle, the council set its preliminary TRIM (truth in millage) property tax rate at 4.00 mills, up from 3.00 mills. The assessment for roads and drainage was set at $250, up from $200, and the annual solid waste assessment was set at $450, up from $400.
In the end, the council cut enough out of the budget to leave the property tax rate and the roads and drainage assessment unchanged from 2024, only raising the solid waste assessment $50 to $450.
Kurtz noted that a glitch in the town’s transmission of information had county TRIM notices go out at $200 per unit for the roads and drainage assessment, which would have required a costly re-notice process to fix, but since the council had tentatively decided to use the $200 rate, that issue was moot.
Money was removed from the budget when several capital projects were postponed, including traffic calming in Okeechobee Blvd. and work at Loxahatchee Groves Town Hall to allow it to serve as an emergency operations center. The council is also exploring whether having an in-house attorney will save money.
Town Manager Francine Ramaglia noted that the tax rate of 3.00 mills and the assessment rate of $200 per unit have now been unchanged since 2018.
The town’s General Fund, used for day-to-day operations, comes in at $4.3 million, and includes transfers of $595,493 to the Roads and Drainage Fund and $394,000 to the Capital Fund.
The Roads and Drainage Fund is balanced at $2.4 million with revenues coming from the $200 per acre assessment, along with the $595,493 from the General Fund and $268,000 from the Transportation Fund.
The town’s Capital Fund calls for $2,079,375 in project spending, funded by $750,000 from a state grant, along with transfers from the General Fund, the Transportation Fund and the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST).
Finally, the Solid Waste Fund is balanced at $720,000, primarily funded by the solid waste assessment of $450 per unit. This assessment rate generates net revenue of about $650,000, with an additional $70,000 coming from the use of reserves, interest earnings and a small amount of recycling income.
Meeting as the dependent Loxahatchee Groves Water Control District, the council set the roads and drainage assessment at $200 per unit, which passed 4-1 with Councilman Robert Shorr dissenting.
When it came time to set the solid waste assessment, Shorr said that getting the extra money from the increase does not warrant the change to $450. He suggested removing another road project and keeping it unchanged.
Mayor Anita Kane said that the town is just asking residents to pay for a service that they receive.
“We are talking about bringing it back up to a rate that it was at previously, and no longer subsidizing something at a rate of $170,000 per year,” Kane said. “It’s easy to subsidize things when you have $2 million of federal money coming into the town, but we don’t have that now.”
Councilwoman Phillis Maniglia made a motion to approve the assessment at $450, which passed 4-1 with Shorr dissenting.
Maniglia also made a motion to adopt the town’s property tax rate at 3.00 mills, unchanged from the previous year, which passed unanimously. Due to increasing property values, the rate of 3.00 mills will bring in some additional revenue to the town. It is 10.9 percent above the rolled-back rate of 2.7048 mills, which is the rate that would bring in the same amount of revenue as fiscal year 2024.
When it came time to adopt the overall budget, there was an in-depth discussion regarding the town’s pay plan, which classifies pay rates by position.
Councilwoman Laura Danowski asked if the pay plan in the budget was set in stone and was told that it could be changed if needed.
Ramaglia said that when coming up with the pay plan, she surveyed comparable municipalities and special districts and went with the lower end. Ramaglia noted that a cost-of-living increase for employees is included in the budget.
Vice Mayor Marge Herzog noted that the town is in a unique situation where it has a lower population than most municipalities but is larger in size than many.
“We are unique, and we have to work within what we have,” Herzog said.
Ramaglia said that she is very happy with the current town staff and compared them to Swiss Army knives.
“These employees are the best employees that I have ever worked with,” she said. “They are mission-driving employees… We don’t have as many people as the size of our footprint. We make our people do everything. They are cross-trained.”
Maniglia made a motion to adopt the tentative budget, which passed 4-1 with Shorr dissenting.
The council also adopted the annual update to the capital improvements element of the comprehensive plan, which included a list of roads to be improved over the next five years. However, the list beyond fiscal year 2025 is tentative and subject to change. It passed 4-1 with Shorr opposed.
