The Loxahatchee Groves Town Council heard a staff presentation Tuesday, July 2 overviewing what is expected to be a difficult budget for fiscal year 2025.
At the meeting, the council set the TRIM (truth-in-millage) rates for the town’s solid waste assessment, ad valorem property tax rate and the non-ad-valorem assessment for the dependent Loxahatchee Groves Water Control District. Each of the rates were set higher than last year to provide maximum flexibility during the budget process, but several if not all of them are expected to come down before the final budget is adopted in September.
The TRIM rates represent the maximum a municipality can charge property owners next year. The rates can come down as the budget process continues but cannot go up.
The budget overview was presented by Project Coordinator Jeff Kurtz, stressing that the votes taken that evening were not final.
“This is preliminary. It doesn’t actually enact anything,” he said. “What it does is set the highest rate that can potentially be assessed through the budget process. Those assessment hearings will be held in September.”
On Tuesday, July 16, the council will hear an initial presentation reviewing a more detailed budget. This will be fine-tuned at budget workshops on Aug. 13 and Aug. 20, as well as Aug. 22, if needed. There will also be a meeting of the town’s Finance Advisory & Audit Committee (FAAC) to review the budget.
On Tuesday, Sept. 3, the town will hold its first public hearing on the budget and set the final LGWCD and solid waste assessment rates. The second and final public hearing, which will adopt the budget and final millage rate, is set for Wednesday, Sept. 18. The new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
Kurtz warned that the town does not have reserves available to help balance the budget.
“We do not have reserves that we can rely on to fund projects as we have in the past,” Kurtz said. “We are asking you to utilize revenues that will be produced in the next fiscal year to pay for projects and services that the town and water district provide next year. We will not be using prior year funds to any great extent.”
In recent years, the town’s finances have also been supplemented with federal money through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which is no longer available.
There will be $750,000 in the general fund that can be transferred to the capital fund. Meanwhile, there is a projected shortfall of $600,000 in the road and drainage fund. There was a similar shortfall last year, which was covered by money in reserves.
To help with that, Kurtz suggested that the road and drainage assessment through the LGWCD be raised to $280 per acre from the current year’s $200, which would cover the fund’s shortfall.
As for capital projects, Kurtz said that about $2.25 million will be needed for the upcoming year. He said that the shortfall in that fund could be covered by moving some money from the current year, and not completing a few of the small road projects that are planned.
Another source of funding would be to raise the millage rate, Kurtz said. He suggested placing the TRIM rate at 4.00 mills, up from 3.00 mills, in order to keep that option open during the budget process. However, that type of increase would require a unanimous council vote for final passage.
Setting both the assessment and the millage TRIM rates higher would give the council options, Kurtz said, but only one such increase may be necessary in the final budget.
Mayor Anita Kane wanted to know the impact of that type of increase on property owners, and Kurtz said that would be different for each resident based on their taxable property value. Commercial properties pay more with a millage rate increase rather than an assessment increase, he added.
Councilwoman Laura Danowski said that she does not want to see any increases in the tax rate or assessments.
“I would rather keep everything at 3.00 and $200 an acre and learn how to tighten our belts,” she said.
Danowski favored cutting back on projects rather than allowing rate increases.
Councilwoman Phillis Maniglia said the current vote is not about raising taxes, but rather giving the town options as the budget process moves forward. She did not want to see necessary paving and drainage projects postponed further.
“I am not in favor of raising taxes, but we are in dire straits,” Maniglia said. “We have to pay for the infrastructure that we have been ignoring and neglecting.”
She favored a millage increase over an assessment increase in order to shift more of the burden to commercial taxpayers. She also does not think the town should continue to subsidize the solid waste assessment.
Vice Mayor Marge Herzog agreed with Maniglia. “I think it is very important that we allow ourselves the ability to negotiate,” Herzog said.
Councilman Robert Shorr, who attended the meeting remotely, said that the per-acre increases will hurt the long-term residents, who have property values that are capped by state law.
“I do not want to see the per-acre increased,” he said. “I want to see some of this burden shifted to commercial.”
Shorr did not support an increase in the solid waste fee of $400. He noted that even with no rate changes, the town’s income will go up due to rising property values. “It’s not huge, but it is a decent increase to offset things like employee raises and administration costs,” he said.
Kane noted that the town’s per-acre assessment is the lowest among neighboring municipalities.
Maniglia felt that there was money to be saved in the budget by switching to an in-house attorney, and she urged the council to support more pro-active code enforcement.
When it came time to set the LGWCD assessment rate. Herzog made a motion to set the preliminary rate at $280, but it failed for lack of a second. Maniglia then suggested $200, the same as last year, which passed 3-2 with Kane and Herzog opposed.
When the discussion shifted to the solid waste collection rate, staff noted that the proposed rate of $450 per unit is an increase of $50 over the current year’s rate, but it returns the rate to the fiscal year 2022 level.
Lowering it to $400 required the town to supplement the cost with $118,000 of money that could be used elsewhere. Shorr, however, wanted the rate to stay at $400 again.
A three percent increase (about $20,000) is expected from trash collection vendor Coastal.
Maniglia made a motion for the staff recommendation of $450, which passed 3-2 with Danowski and Shorr opposed.
The council majority agreed with staff’s TRIM rate proposal of 4.00 mills, above the 3.00 mills from last year, and above the rollback rate of 2.70 mills.
Shorr accepted the preliminary proposal of 4.00 mills. “This gives us some flexibility. I think as we get deeper into the budget, we may not need it,” he said.
Maniglia made a motion to set the TRIM rate at 4.00 mills, which passed 4-1 with Danowski opposed. However, it would require a unanimous vote for final passage.
After Danowski opposed the millage increase, Maniglia asked to reconsider the LGWCD assessment, which was then changed to $250, between the current rate of $200 and staff’s recommendation of $280, on a 3-2 vote with Shorr and Danowski opposed.
In other business:
- Palm Beach County Commissioner Sara Baxter attended the meeting, along with Legislative Affairs Director Kasey Denny, to give a legislative update on how recent changes in Tallahassee will impact the local area. Baxter congratulated the town on its approval of $750,000 in state funds through the budget process.
- Danowski was presented an award by Katelyn Bates and Ashley Schroth of Junior Achievement of the Palm Beaches, thanking her for her work supporting the local nonprofit.
- Gina Lawrence of My Government Online gave a presentation on new software that the town will be implementing to oversee permits and code enforcement. The contract was approved at the meeting, and the council hopes that the new software will upgrade crucial systems that have been problematic in the past.
- After more than a year of discussion, the council rejected an amendment to the town’s Unified Land Development Code that would have added “debris management services for the purposes of post-disaster clean up” among the list of essential services. This would have allowed the town and its emergency debris management provider AshBritt to move forward with setting up a post-hurricane debris management site near Southern Blvd.
- The council continued its discussion regarding proposed changes to the town’s recreational vehicle ordinance, which is expected to return to the council in a more final form later this summer.
