After three workshops and two late night budget hearings, the Miami Lakes town council raised the millage rate slightly, from 2.0732 to 2.1577, or $2.15.
To get there, they adjusted where revenues went and lowered the general fund spending plan by $1,103,912.
At midnight on Sept. 25, a majority -- Councilmen Juan Carlos Fernandez, Steven Herzberg and Alex Sanchez; Vice Mayor Bryan Morera and Mayor Josh Dieguez -- approved the new town levy that Councilmen Angelo Cuadra Garcia and Ray Garcia opposed, wanting to go to a flat rate.
The 4% increase means that a property owner whose home has a $293,906 taxable value (the average in town, according to the county) would pay $634.16 in town tax. (Taxable value is the assessed value less homestead and other exemptions).
Last year’s bill would have been $621.96, or $12.20 less. The new tax rate is lower than fiscal year 2022 - 2023.
A general fund budget of $23,215,939 was passed, with Garcia and Cuadra Garcia opposed. More than half of the spending plan, $12 million, will fund police protection.
The three new council members and Garcia challenged restrictions on how state and county revenues may be spent.
They questioned staff about costs for mulch and fertilizer; “safety mulch” beneath swing sets; how often grass is mowed in parks and on medians; leaf pickups and replacing flowers with native plants or rocks.
The council cut $60,948, canceling mulching and several mow cycles in right of ways. Fernandez and Morera voted against it; the vice mayor said more than once he wanted to “frolic in the meadows” and didn’t want to cut greenspace maintenance budgets.
Though Dieguez said it was a bad practice, they made one-time transfers from accounts to balance the budget, including an $86,000 surplus from a debt fund for bond payments and $499,322 from the Miami Lakes Optimist Park Fund.
They also lowered outside attorneys’ and bank fees for a line of credit account by $68,750.
Of the dozen volunteer committees, they cut the Neighborhood Improvement Committee’s $5,900 pedestrian and bike initiatives; the Youth Activities Task Force’s $2,000 bike rodeo and $1,000 for a Juneteenth event staged by the Cultural Affairs Committee.
Also slashed: the Education Advisory Board’s $4,000 for classes at the public library and $36,500 in AP language arts and STEM courses, which the council considered to be county costs.
Two positions -- a nighttime Town Hall security guard, at $21,000, and a martial arts instructor, for $15,000 -- were eliminated.
Going forward only three council members will have town cellphones.
They also cut $5,500 from their travel funds, $5,000 for training and will buy their own town polo shirts.
Retained was a tax rebate program for 460 elderly and disabled veterans at $82,500; the town will pay them $175 each.
The council reversed an earlier vote to deny cost of living raises for a dozen department heads who earn more than $100,000.
Dieguez said a 3% COLA was well below inflation in South Florida. They approved 3% cost of living increases for all employees, with Cuadra Garcia and Garcia voting against it.