The Miami Lakes Town Council adopted a new tax rate for property taxes to help shield residents with Homestead Exemption from a tax hike, and a $35 million budget which included restoring funding for the city’s committees since volunteers play a major role in the town’s affairs.
Lawmakers initially kept the 2.3518 rate but reduced it to the rollback rate of 2.3353 mills and closed the $40,000 budget deficit by cutting funding from vacant Town Hall positions and lawmakers’ travel expenses to balance the spending plan for 2016-2017.
At last month’s final budget hearing, Town Manager Alex Rey and his staff restored the committees’ funding as instructed after a restriction to spend $300,000 on education, as part of a development agreement, was lifted to cover youth programs as well.
But Rey reversed his decision following residents’ concerns the $300,000 would be needed since a large scale residential development would impact Bob Graham Education Center and Barbara Goleman High School.
Council members scrutinized the budget and discovered funding to spare residents from a slight tax increase after their property values rose and gave the committees’ the funding they had requested in July without using the $300,000.
The new 2.2253 tax rate, which is $2.2253 per $1,000 of assessed property value, generates about $6.1 million for the budget, as well as other revenues to render the level of municipal services residents have grown accustomed to since incorporation.
Mayor Michael Pizzi suggested the new rate and lawmakers approved Councilmember Frank Mingo’s proposal to cut $65,000 to $32,000 for a part-time community outreach manager instead of a full-time staff member.
The position, which is the town’s public information officer and social media director, has been vacant for some time now.
In addition, $11,500 was cut from council members’ travel expenses to attend conferences and National League of Cities events and workshops, leaving them with a $26,000 budget for the year.
About $4,400 was left over to cover the committees’ budgets and Rey offset the $2,700 budget shortfall by not filling other vacant positions by the start of the October 1 fiscal year.
With the new tax rate, the town’s general fund budget is $6.2 million, which is about a $265,000 increase in ad valorem revenue for the new fiscal year.
Miami Lakes has significantly reduced expenses over the last ten years from a high of $21.6 million to a projected fiscal year 2016-2017 expense budget of $15.8 million. As compared to fiscal year 2015-2016, projected expenses excluding carryover funds for projects ($600,000), developer’s reimbursement of Series 2013 Loan ($1.7 million) and the building permit activity expenses ($1.2 million), the fiscal year 2016-2017 proposed expense budget, reflects an increase of about $391,000.
Some budget amendments included reducing the town’s landscape maintenance mowing cycles from 35 to 32 cycles per year for the pocket packs and landscape areas, a reduction to the property, casualty and liability insurance appropriation, as well as allocating funds for the direct purchase of the LED street light program.
Due to the fact that the program is budgeted in the special revenue fund (Peoples Transportation Plan, PTP 80 percent), the need for a transfer to the capital projects fund in the amount of $365,600 is eliminated, and partially off-set by the transfer of $4,400 to the general fund, and thereby reduces the total fiscal year budget to $35.2 million.
When the town initially released preliminary figures in June, town staff presented over $1.8 million worth of unfunded projects, including adding two police officers, black olive tree removal and replacement program, four beautification projects along the town’s main thoroughfare, hurricane preparedness, West Lakes Neighborhood Reforestation program, and senior and adult programs.
But during a two-day budget workshop in August, Rey and his staff were able to find the money to fund the West Lakes Neighborhood Reforestation program ($100,000), the tree removal and replacement program ($28,807) and the addition of two police officers ($250,000) with a COPS grant over the next three years to fund public safety services.
The senior and adult programming will be funded on a pay for play at no additional cost to the town.
For capital improvement projects, the town has allocated $778,588 for parks and recreation, including to the Mary Collins Community Center, Miami Lakes Optimist Park Marina and storage facility and new park furniture for the town’s pocket parks.
For transportation and storm water drainage improvements, the town is planning to spend $2.2 million for Windmill Gate Road and the Palmetto Expressway, roadway and drainage improvements at Lake Sarah, street repairs at Hutchinson Road, constructing a northbound right turn lane at N.W. 154 Street and 77 Court and widening of N.W. 164 Street and 87 Avenue.
The town’s biggest expense is police services capped at $7.6 million, followed by parks and recreation at $3.1 million, $2.7 million for general government operations, and $1 million for transportation.