from tcpalm.com
The South Florida Water Management District board is expected to approve lower tax rates for property owners at a meeting Thursday in West Palm Beach.
And who can argue against lower taxes?
Audubon Florida can, claiming the water district didn’t get the money needed for Everglades restoration from the state Legislature, so property owners in the district’s 16 counties — including Martin and St. Lucie — need to make up the difference.
The proposed tax rate for fiscal year 2015-16, which begins in October, would be $35.51 for every $100,000 of a property’s taxable value after exemptions, such as the state homestead exemption. Compared to the current rate, that’s a saving of $5.59 if your home has a taxable value of $100,000 or nearly $14 if your home has a taxable value of $250,000.
This would be the fifth year in a row the district has lowered its tax rate, and the lower rate will generate about $700,000 less than last year’s taxes.
The tax revenue is more than a third of a $719.2 million budget district staff will ask the board to approve in September. State and federal funds, fees, fund balances and other revenues make up the rest of the budget.
The proposed budget is nearly $750,000 less than the current budget.
In a letter to state Legislature leaders, district Executive Director Blake Guillory says the budget, while not raising taxes, “supports the agency’s mission-critical functions and statutory obligations” of flood control, improving water quality and meeting water supply demands.
Costs up, revenues down
Tabitha Cale, Everglades policy associate at Audubon Florida, countered that the district’s “revenues are going down and their costs for their basic mission of water supply and flood control are going up.”
The big loser would be the Everglades, said Audubon chief Eric Draper.
In January, Gov. Rick Scott proposed spending $5 billion over the next 20 years on Everglades restoration projects and asked the state Legislature for $150 million for the upcoming fiscal year.
Instead, legislators this spring appropriated only $82 million.
Cale and Draper plan to ask the district board to raise its tax rate enough to add $60 million to the 2015-16 budget, with $48 million of that going to Everglades and estuary projects.
The rest would be divvied up for land management, dispersed water management projects and merit pay raises to staff.
To add that much money to the budget, taxes would have to be increased by about $8 on a $100,000 property and nearly $20 on a $250,000 property.
“If it’s another $8, $20 or even $50, I think it’s a reasonable price to pay for clean water, flood control and the restoration of the Everglades and the (St. Lucie River and Caloosahatchee River) estuaries,” Draper said.