Tentative millage rate for fiscal year 2021

1:37:19Okay. Good stuff, good stuff. Now, I'm looking at the time as eleven thirty seven. Um Bob

1:37:31Yeah, I don't you don't have to be brief. I just want to s make sure you have your time to do it when you do, because obviously this is very important. So if you feel comfortable.

1:37:40Yes sir, I do.

1:37:41Okay.

1:37:44Then it's

1:37:45your show. Good morning, Robert Corey, Pasco County Budget Director. As you are aware, the state statute requires that the board approve a tentative millage rate for the truth and millage notices that will be sent to all of our property holders in August. And before we get into the the truth and millage, I'd like to give you some updates on some of the things that have happened since our June 30th meeting. So if you'll go to the next slide, please. We did get the final taxable assessed values. Uh for the county

1:38:15for for fiscal year 21. The it increased from our preliminary values of 7.4% to 7.7% uh was our final that we received. You'll notice that 7.7 percent in fiscal year 21, it was a 9.3 percent increase, was the increase in uh fiscal 20. So you'll notice the the new construction, over a billion dollars, just about where we were in uh fiscal year twenty. The re-evaluations, those are existing properties that have had improvements to

1:38:45them, didn't grow quite as fast as it did in fiscal year 20. Next slide, please. So this is just a representation of where we are with our new construction. You see, since the bottom of the Great Recession in 2012, we have had an increase in our new construction value. We believe this new construction value is much more sustainable than it was prior to the Great Recession just because of the the amount of diversity we have in our new construction base. Next, please. So with the 7.7 percent increase in our taxable

1:39:15assessed values in July, we take that and compare that to what we presented to you for the June increase of 7.4 percent. So that's an increase in property tax of 15.2, almost 15.3 million. As we talked about previously, the sheriff, uh, in our agreement with the sheriff gets half of that money for his new uh uh initiatives and for ongoing uh protection of the county and that's would be seven point six percent or s excuse me seven point six million or

1:39:45about two hundred thousand dollar increase So that would leave $7.6 million for the county if we deduct the amount from the CRAs as well as the payments to the TIFF and the contribution to reserves. And so the $1.4 million contribution to reserve to get us to our 12.5% uh level for our reserves, that leaves the county about uh three point three eight million dollars or just over a hundred thousand dollars to spend on new initiatives. Next please. So

1:40:16although the taxable assess value for the general fund increased, the taxable assess values decreased for the fire fund between June and July. June was very high at 10.6%, and that did come down to 9.7%, and that's the difference of about $400,000. Next please. Uh if we look at the TIFF, countywide TIFF, because of the increase from 7.4 to 7.7, the countywide TIFF increased $1.7 or $172,000.

1:40:47The villages of Pasadena Hills and the Lacucci area, both of those, the taxable assessed values in those areas decreased, and so the amount of money going to those areas decreased as well. Next, please. And here you can see our CRAs, our community redevelopment areas. This is money the county gives to the cities to combat slum and blight in those areas. And as you can see, all of those areas increased in value between June and July, with the exception of New Port Richey. If we go to the next slide, you'll notice that That since July,

1:41:17Newport Ritchie passed an ordinance or a resolution that removed two neighborhoods from the CRA. Those numbers were not included in the previous slide. And so that's removes about twenty-one million dollars in value from the CRA taxable values. And so we anticipate that to be a savings in the neighborhood of forty thousand dollars. That's not in the materials you've been given. We'll be working with the property appraiser to incorporate that change into the taxable assessed values, and so those will be reflected in the future. Next,

1:41:48please. And so just to highlight for the budget, we are recommending no change in the operating millage rate of 7.6076 or the fire service MSTU Millage Rate of 1.8036. As you are aware, under the Save Our Homes Protections, the taxable assessed value of homestead properties is capped at 3%, or the change in the consumer price index, whichever is less. The consumer price index for the year is 2.3%, and so taxable assessed values on homesteaded

1:42:19properties cannot increase by more than 2.3 percent. So if we do the simple math, Death, homesteaded homeowners will notice an increase in their property tax bill of $17.50, and that's because their property values have increased, not because there's been a change in the property tax rate. Next, please.

1:42:40And as we want to go back and just look at the major funds, we can see most of them have uh changed a little bit. The biggest change is the tourism development fund, and the reason for that is because we are expecting the uh because of the pandemic not as many folks staying in hotels and so on. So we're expecting that. Revenues to go down and so likewise the amount of revenue for programs is down about twenty percent. However, our CRAC tourism team is standing by, they're ready to do the best they can with the

1:43:10money that's available. Next please. And so if we look at our major departments within the general fund, you'll notice a couple of changes. Uh the the major ones are the fire rescue, that's down about ten percent. The reason for that is because with the pandemic, there's fewer people out there. driving, there's fewer accidents so that the revenues going to the fire rescue are not as high as we hand had anticipated. So we're not really able to move forward with some of the uh business plan initiatives that we had incorporated into the fire department

1:43:40at that time. You'll notice the library is increasing by almost nine percent. We have a new library coming online in this summer, so that is reflected there. And then our parks and recs increasing by almost seven percent and that's uh Starkey Ranch District Park. We're gradually taking over the management of that park. So as we do that we're taking on at some additional costs for that park. Next please.

1:44:04And so at our June 30 meeting, uh Chairman Mariano asked for what is the total budget. You can see here the total budget, the operating piece of the budget increased by about or decreased by point eight percent. And the the biggest increase was our capital increase by 115 percent. And the reason for that are twofold. First is that we're anticipating many of the general obligation bond projects to be completed or to come online in fiscal twenty-one. And we're heavily investing in our utility to keep things

1:44:34up and running and safe for our community. So that's really the the two big changes there for our capital program. Next please. And so as you know, the the purpose of the trim is to approve the tentative millage rates that will appear in the Truth and Millage notices in August. As you're aware, the tentative millage rate reflects a millage rate that Once you pass the millage rate in September, that millage rate can be the same or lower than the tentative millage rate, but cannot be higher. And the the

1:45:04action today will also set the first public hearing for September eighth at five fifteen in Dade City. You'll notice these are the tentative millage rates. for fiscal year twenty one. Many of the general obligation bond millage rates are slightly higher than they were in twenty because in twenty we were paying interest only and in twenty one we're paying interest and principal. One thing I wanted to point out, the Pasco County Commission aggregate If you add those up you'll think that We don't know how to operate a spreadsheet. That is not that

1:45:34aggregate is not a sum of those tables of those uh trim Or of those millage rates. What it is is a sum of those millage rates divided by the assessed value of the county. Someone in Tallahassee thought that was vo very interesting, so we're required to present that figure to you. I don't know exactly. How we're gonna use that to make any any good decisions, but we're required to present that, so there it is. So with that I would ask that the county approve the tentative military agency

1:46:04before you and set the first public hearing for September eighth.

1:46:08To the board for questions, comments? Seeing none? Commissioner Oakley, Commissioner Weightman, comments?

1:46:14Well I have a comment. That was interesting that the operating budget went down.

1:46:21Good good for us.

1:46:23Yeah, a lot of that was driven by the tourism development. Because they've they've gone down by about twenty percent, yes.

1:46:29Their operating

1:46:29budget. Yes, ma'am.

1:46:31Yeah. be a collection of T D T dollars over the last four months that weren't there.

1:46:37Yeah.

1:46:40Have they laid off people? No.

1:46:42No because they can cover

1:46:46it. for fiscal year twenty one we still are going to be investing in the events and the uh organizational activities in Pasco County. What we're going to be doing is reducing the amount that we're investing in capital kinds of things throughout the county.

1:47:00All right,

1:47:01very

1:47:01good.

1:47:02Well I hear uh uh Commissioner Oakley you have a question?

1:47:05Yeah. This This voting on this today doesn't affect anything like if um 'cause I believe the last meeting there was talk about um

1:47:16Wages and raises. Yeah. I wasn't here at the time I had to be out of the office.

1:47:24That's correct. The the budget they have before you is reflects a two percent wage increase for employees with the the the exception of the fire. Uh the fire will get their it's about a two point eight percent increase for a fire to get them into the correct step plan, but for general employees this reflects a two percent wage increase.

1:47:43Well my only concern is is I would I would uh support a three percent for our employees, so

1:47:49I wanna make sure I I

1:47:50made that public. So

1:47:53So an increase of from two to three percent would be about a half million dollar uh increase to the general fund and the municipal services fund.

1:48:02Okay.

1:48:03So so and Bob please step in. So we set the trim today or reminder that what we one of the things we can't do is raise the millage rate once that's done that's correct and published. You can always lower. Yes

1:48:20sir.

1:48:21You would have to Commissioner Oakley and and I'll wait for Commissioner We want to jump in after this too. Um you just have to shift some things around and decide if you're going to take additional funds out of the general fund or or not or out of um

1:48:37Yes, sir. We would suggest we would look at that, see what we could shift around.

1:48:41Yeah, that's what would have to be done. Which you still have the time to do because we're at the still at the early stages, I guess you could say. So

1:48:50Okay, few more.

1:48:51Yes, ma'am.

1:48:52Um could you give us a history of the increases that the staff has had maybe over the last five years?

1:48:58Yeah, last year was uh was a large increase simply because there was the uh Comp and class study where we were trying to get all of our employees up to the market rate. And I think the average increase in last year was about a six percent increase. The two years prior to that I believe were a four percent increase. And I would have to go back and look for the others. I don't remember what those increases were beyond that.

1:49:20Yeah, I think they were at least three and three. So I I feel pretty good. We've done a good job with our raises. And You know, this is a year and we don't know what the effects are gonna be next year and um And I think In today's covet time, two percent A good a good raise. So I I'm I don't know. No of anything I want to cut. As a matter of fact I wanna find some money for Metropolitan Mini for uh habitat, so I'm still hoping

1:49:50we can find something there. So I I I'm I would be okay for going with the two percent this year and then maybe next year. Catching back up. Economy's better.

1:50:00Commissioner Mariano.

1:50:01As far as the the budget as we set this and we approved this number here, obviously we can't change it from there.

1:50:07But are we expecting other monies coming in from other constitutional ones as well?

1:50:11We are expecting that each year there are some excess fees from the constitutionals, the most of which comes from the tax collector, generally in the area of one and a half to two million dollars per year.

1:50:21So we could wait a little bit more and make that decision a little bit down the road just saying we want to go that way.

1:50:26Yes sir.

1:50:27Um I'd like to I want to bring up an idea later on in the committee reports that someone had brought to me uh it's a capital project.

1:50:36Uh Keith Wyling they talk about Hudson Beach. And down at Hudson Beach, down at the part by into the Gulf by the canal that's there. It's always sh it's shut down quite a bit f For Um Bacteria levels that are high. And the sand is also escaped down along the channel, which kinda blocks the channels navigation. as well as, you know, it's it's very valuable sand. So we talked about doing a jetty project up there to go forward. But someone had brought an idea to me, which I thought was

1:51:06brilliant, uh about taking in around the whole Hudson Beach Um I'll show it on the my committee reports where there's an opportunity to bring that beach back to life. If we put kind of a footer or a retaining wall around the whole thing. We raised it up three feet. And being that we're ready to go and do dredging could create a good seawall in a sense. Fill it up about three feet and then we could take the dredging spoils and actually put 'em right in there. and then take some of the sand from the canal which would probably take care of

1:51:36a at least uh a third of the beach, maybe even half the beach, that we just put it right over the top of it. And then we just got to cover the other part. It would really change the dynamics of the area. It would provide for an area if we put a jetty in the back side where we could actually walk across the water closing off the canal from right in the front. So when right in front of like Sam's Club or in the Gulf. You'd see nothing but beach sand. where you can actually put about twenty boats that'll go alongside the channel as well. So I want to make sure we have flexibility to talk about projects coming up because Keith says he that had to cut some things out. But

1:52:07if we got flexibility to talk about this a little bit down the road with that extra money coming in I'm comfortable to kinda you know stick with what we've got right now but just kinda keep the flexibility.

1:52:15Yeah. Thank you, Commissioner Weightman. And then and then there was one thing we had talked about, Bob too, and um I don't I think Dan had to step out from obviously. Um but we talked about that library that's been on hold forever in uh uh Wesley Chapel that never has never been completed. Um and one of the things we thought of we could look at was maybe Maybe not f obviously funding the entire project at this time, but looking at possibly funding the maybe the design and

1:52:46the first year we'd consider possibly doing the site plan, looking at that.

1:52:50Yeah. So that's one of the things yeah, they don't have many ask ever, so but that's uh something they've been waiting on and as we look at throughout the county and there's obviously refurbishing a lot of these and doing s renovations I should say, of lot of the other a lot of the libraries across the county. Uh you have the f fastest growing area that doesn't have one. So um and that site's been there for I don't know, seventeen years, is that About right. Sounds right.

1:53:18Yeah, long time. So never never move forward. So um that's something I would like to see. At least we could get started with the design. And that would be obviously a small percentage. But again, that's just what I put that out in the open when we come back and ha have those conversations about what funds might be excess funds might be available. when i.e. the tax collector other constitutions may return. And then going back to the race thing real quick too, I know w we did have that conversation too. We want to make sure that Um it's important too that

1:53:48we're all in line, i.e. The constitutions that fall under our budget um that we're I know some talked about what percentage they're going to do. We've talked about what we want to do, what we wanna make sure we're in line. Everybody's in line. So all the constitutions. Um Commissioner Weightman. Sir

1:54:11Yes Chairman Mariano I'm working with Barbara Hensman to send you guys an email to outline exactly what the employees get for time off. I know Commissioner Starkey had said they get a month when they start. That is then correct, but I don't I don't want to debate it back and forth right now. But I'll have Barbara And and don't forget You know, the four or five years our employees without any w went without any raises. And you know, these raises they got the last couple of years doing these studies has been to get them right, which some of

1:54:41them still aren't right. And the bottom line is we're talking about other projects and those are important, but there is not anything more important than taking care of our folks. So I'm not gonna make a motion on it today. I know that you all agree with me. I I think Commissioner Starkey, I I get it. Um but our employees deserve three percent. They've earned three percent and the other constitutionals are given three percent, the state's given three percent. We need to get three percent, but I'm fine bringing it up later once we figure out who's giving us back money. But You are on the right-of-way. Well.

1:55:13Oh. outline and exact how the employees get their time off. So thank you.

1:55:19Okay, thank you, Commissioner Weightman comments, questions?

1:55:22I'd just like to tag on to your thing with the library. I think it's a great idea.

1:55:26All right. Thank you, Commissioner.

1:55:30Okay. With that I will entertain a motion.

1:55:34Move approval.

1:55:39Okay, sec second by Commissioner Oakley with discussion from Commissioner Starkey.

1:55:44If we If there's sediment among you guys to give a higher raise, don't we have to put the trim notice higher right now?

1:55:53No, the term knows we can still balance the budget and not move the uh military.

1:55:58Oh, okay. We wouldn't we'd cut projects.

1:56:00Yes.

1:56:01Or well you don't know.

1:56:02Or we may have some money from another source.

1:56:04Yes, ma'am.

1:56:05Yes. Which probably is the most likely place. Yes. Okay.

1:56:09Okay. So I have a motion by Commissioner Marion, I have a second by Commissioner Oakley. Any more discussion? Seeing none. Madam Clerk, please call roll.

1:56:18District One, Commissioner Oakley. Aye. District three, Commissioner Starkey. Aye. District four, Commissioner Weightman

1:56:27Aye.

1:56:27District 5, Commissioner Mariano.

1:56:29Aye.

1:56:30District 2, Chairman More.

1:56:31Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. We have four minutes. If somebody thinks of on R six, R seven, R eight, R nine, R R ten. I know some of us have lunch meetings, which I do too, with staff. So if somebody thinks they can pull it off in four minutes, you move right ahead and call. So you feeling good about this?

1:56:51Yes.