With the possibility of a major decrease in property tax revenue looming statewide, members of the Westlake City Council approved a token drop in the millage rate as they finalized the municipality’s fiscal year 2027 budget on Monday, Sept. 14.
The council voted 5-0 to cut the millage rate from 4.6 mills to 4.59 mills. It marks the fifth straight year of property tax rate decreases in Westlake.
The modest reduction cuts the average city tax bill for a homeowner with a $500,000 property and $50,000 homestead exemption from approximately $2,070 to about $2,065.50 — a savings of $4.50.
“I would like to have been more aggressive with the millage cut,” Mayor JohnPaul O’Connor said Tuesday. “And I think we could have been… [but] I was kind of an island on that.”
From its inception in 2016 until fiscal year 2023, Westlake held its millage rate unchanged at 5.125. Since then, the millage rate has been dropping steadily, including a savings of approximately $45 per homesteaded homeowner in fiscal year 2026.
Councilman Gary Werner said that this coming year’s decrease was mostly symbolic — “we wanted to continue the trend” — while there was need be mindful of the possible November passage statewide of Amendment 3.
“I also would have liked to have seen a larger reduction,” he said. “But I think the council felt this is a time when we really need to be cautious.”
Councilman Erik Gleason agreed. “If the amendment passes, it’s going to really hurt the city in the long run,” he said Tuesday. “We’re going to lose quite a bit of money… but the need [for basic services] isn’t going away… We’ll have to find the money somewhere.”
Amendment 3 would raise the homestead exemption for all non-school property taxes from the current $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, with inflation adjustments starting in 2029. The measure also cuts the annual assessment-increase cap on non-homestead properties from 10 percent to 5 percent.
Stephen Bloom, an Inframark employee who serves as the city’s financial director, said there are plenty of reasons for caution. He said his study of the data indicates that if Amendment 3 passes, it will cost the city $1 million in fiscal year 2028 and $2 million in fiscal year 2029.
Bloom told the council that of the 643 new homes projected to be built in Westlake in fiscal year 2027, 480 — or almost 75 percent — would likely have homestead exemptions.
“We’re already a very lean city,” O’Connor said. “We do a lot with a little.”
The council also voted 5-0 to approve the fiscal year 2027 budget of $13,480,094, which includes city’s general fund, reserve fund and special housing assistance program. That’s a 9.7 percent increase over the fiscal year 2026 budget of $12,292,000.
“This is a basic, bare-bones budget,” City Manager Howard Brown said Wednesday.
The city “is keeping an eye on what’s happening in Tallahassee… [and] taking seriously, in terms of long-range financial planning,” the possibility that Amendment 3 will pass, he added.
Westlake saw revenues rise from $11,020,830 in 2026 to a projected $14,065,163 in 2027 — an increase of $3,044,333 or 27.6 percent.
The biggest driver of the revenue jump was an increase in property values, plus one-time items including a $600,000 state grant for the planned 50-acre park being built by the Seminole Improvement District in conjunction with the city.
Total expenditures are set to rise from $8,942,100 to $10,275,933 in fiscal year 2027 — an increase of $1,333,833, or 14.9 percent, mostly due to $1.2 million committed for the park taking shape at Seminole Pratt Whitney Road and Sycamore Drive West and the need for a partial match to the $202,000 grant for the so-called “Go West Transit Project.”
The pilot project is planned as a way of connecting workforce personnel and others to Westlake and conversely to allow movement to downtown West Palm Beach and other locations via Palm Tran.
Also, the city needed to move $373,118 from its general fund to its Special Reserve Fund/Comprehensive Planning Services account to cover shortfalls in estimated revenue from home inspections.
Brown said the shortfall does not indicate a decrease in homes being built or sold in Westlake, which has for years been one of the fastest growing communities in Palm Beach County and one of the fastest in the state.
The drop instead has been caused by the increased use of private building inspectors, rather than city-connected inspectors, by Minto Communities USA, Westlake’s largest landowner and developer.
Kolter Homes and GL Homes continue to use city-provided inspectors, he said.
