North Port commissioners set the tax millage rate NOT to exceed 3.8735

 

 

 

North Port commissioners set the tax millage rate NOT to exceed 3.8735

 

 

Commissioner Pete Emrich

 

Today, we commissioners set the tax millage rate NOT to exceed 3.8735. That’s $3.87 for every $1,000 of taxable value of a home.

 

What that means is the millage rate will not go up – and will likely go down by the September budget hearings, after we spent 2 days making cuts.

 

We were looking at a $12 per household increase in the fire department.

 

I believe with over 300,000 in cuts, we brought down that increase between $6 to $10 per household. The increase is needed for new firefighters. We had a grant that paid for 2 dozen firefighters to help make up for the shortage including at West Villages. Currently more than half of our firefighters have only been on the job for three years. It’s nearly the same with the police officers.

We must support our first responders/essential workers and other city employees.

 

We had no time to freeze salaries of union employees without negotiating – so while it’s an option, it can’t be done overnight or even successfully by the September budget hearings.

 

We could not cut training for police, fire or other employees. Again, there wasn’t time to do that without knowing exactly how many employees are impacted. The police chief made a good point. He said while some departments/city/county leaders talked about defunding police departments, the NP City Commission has been supportive of the police department. The morale is up from 3 years ago and we finally have the correct number of officers to keep up with growth. Last week, 6 new officers were hired with 2 more in training.

 

Stopping all of that would have set the city back to the days of firefighter/paramedic and police shortages and thousands in overtime of existing first responders.

 

No increases are planned in the Solid Waste and Road & Drainage districts.

 

We know people are hurting. That’s one reason why we could not raise the current millage rate. It should go down a few points by September.

 

The budget hearings are Sept. 3 and Sept. 17 at 5:01 pm.

 

The public can speak at both hearings. But if you are looking for any type of change please speak up at the first hearing. The budget must be balanced and passed by Sept. 30 otherwise the City is fined by the day.

 

More to come.