- May 4, 2024
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Either taxes must rise or county services must be cut to balance Flagler County’s budget next year, according to staff, and county commissioners have opted to take the ax to its programs.
To fund the county’s proposed budget for next year, with no reduction in county services, the Flagler County Board of County Commissioners would have to raise the tax rate by 1.11 mills, or $1.11 per $1,000 in taxable value. Currently, the county’s tax rate is set at 7.08 mills.
But Commissioner Barbara Revels said during a Tuesday workshop that she would like to see between $500,000 and $1 million cut from the budget before setting a tentative millage rate. The rest of the board agreed, and will meet Monday to discuss cuts.
Revels suggested, among other things, decreasing recreation services and general administrative costs, as well as holding off on hiring any new staff, as was suggested at previous budget workshops.
A slight increase in property values will generate more property tax revenue this year, said County Administrator Craig Coffey, but the county still faces state-mandated increases to Medicaid and retirement costs, as well other expenses, such as rebuilding the reserves it depleted as property values plummeted. Those increased costs have created a projected budget shortfall of $6.925 million for next year.
Increasing the tax rate by 1 mill would leave a shortfall of about $675,000, Coffey said. Increasing it by 1.1 would cover the entire budget as it is currently proposed. Coffey said his proposed budget reflects fewer cuts than in previous years so that the commission could decide where to save money.
Commissioner Nate McLaughlin said it was important to determine the level of services citizens wish to pay for, and determine the costs of those services, instead of each year being faced with shifting around costs.
“I’m just interested in saying, ‘Folks, these are the services you want; these are the costs (of those services),” McLaughlin said.
Then, rather than increasing spending when property values are up and decreasing it when property values are down, the county would have an agreed level of service, and would fund those services as needed, McLaughlin said.
The commission took public comment at its meeting, hoping to hear from the public, but just one person addressed the board: former commissioner Alan Peterson, who said the commission’s top priority should be holding down the millage rate.
“What the public wants is no new taxes and no new services,” he said, noting that when the Flagler County School Board asked voters to approve a new tax in June, that request was denied by a wide margin.
Commissioner Charlie Ericksen noted that many Flagler County constituents are senior citizens whose Social Security benefits will not increase in proportion to tax increases.
He suggested that, rather than giving all county employees a proposed 3% raise in salary (a gesture meant to offset rising costs of living and health care), the county increase the salaries of employees earning less than $50,000 by 2%.
For those employees earning more than $50,000 annually, Ericksen suggested a 1% raise. The rest of the 3% raise could be rolled out in succeeding years without forcing the county to swallow the cost of the raises all at once.
The County Commission was scheduled to set a tentative millage rate during its Tuesday workshop, but commissioners instead asked county staff to create a list of potential cuts, as well as to determine what the budget would look like if its costs were held flat.
The board will meet at 9 a.m. Monday to talk about cuts and set a tentative millage rate.
