The Miami Lakes town council unanimously voted to reduce the millage rate for the first time in five years and set the lowest levy since 2004.
The adopted millage rate is 2.2664, or $2.26 per $1,000 of assessed property.
A homeowner whose property has a taxable value of $300,000, less a $50,000 homestead exemption, may have a tax levy from the town of $565.
Collected taxes will add up to $8.9 million in ad valorem revenues.
That is 47 percent of the town’s $19.5 million general fund budget.
Other sources of income to the town – from utility taxes, intergovernmental revenues, licenses and permits; fines and the FPL franchise fee – will fund the rest of the budget.
Though the millage rate is lower than in prior years, property values have increased by 9.7 percent, so some taxpayers may pay more.
The adopted millage rate is higher than the rollback rate that Town Manager Ed Pidermann said would have been 2.1100 mills.
During the final budget meeting on Sept. 27, the council made changes to expenditures that had been proposed during workshops.
They approved cutting $70,600 in requests from committees and $54,281 from the public works budget for planting trees; deleted $65,311 proposed for merit bonuses and reduced cost of living increases for staff from 8 percent to 5 percent.
The council approved increasing police overtime by $100,000: $25,000 for traffic enforcement and $75,000 to fund a team to investigate vehicle burglaries.
They also approved $15,000 to pay for federal lobbyists’ services through December and $2,000 for Councilman Josh Dieguez to attend League of Cities conferences.
Mayor Manny Cid voted against the changes.
Cid said he wanted two new officers hired for the police force; to repeat a rebate for low-income seniors that had been paid last year and to pay raises to contract workers.