The Tavares, FL City Council discussed the 2022 "Broad Budget Priorities" on Jan. 20th, 2021.
Only two of the City Council, Lori Pfister and Walter Price, asked that the future budget's main goal be to set millage rates for the 2021-2022 budget year to the full rollback millage rate or even less to show empathy with local residents in this tough economy. Hearings over details will take place over the next six months.
But the other three, Troy Singer, Mayor Amanda Boggus and Lou Buigas, did NOT support that proposal, saying it would be hard to achieve. Buigas said they would have to close the library (a spin statement, in my opinion) to go to the rollback. So, they won't commit to rollback rates, meaning that with increased valuations your taxes will go up again.
So, Tavares residents, tax valuations THIS year went up around 10% and the prior Council would not go to the rollback rate, so your taxes went up this year, and already, the Council won't cut costs to prevent tax hikes for next year. Even though many residents are getting laid off or businesses shut down, the big spending three want to give more raises to the staff.
Northerners are running up real estate sales RIGHT NOW, and properties are selling in minutes with multiple escalating offers. So valuations will jump again. Hardest hit will be commercial property and second home owners who will not have the Save our Homes cap to prevent a full tax hit. I suggested during public input that Tavares leaders should just acknowledge publicly that they want to be a high budget Cadillac City and any home owners with Volkswagen budgets should not live in Tavares. In other words, residents who like free concerts, fancy buildings, etc. who can afford Tavares taxes should live here (Tavares millage rates are almost twice several other cities), but the others should move to a lower tax city like Minneola. If you want to read where much of the budget is going now, you can look up the budget PACKET for the meeting at the city website at Tavares.org (agenda item 9) for all the gory fiscal details. Or, the full CURRENT budget should be on the Finance Department's website page.
In other news, the City staff was testing an all new $128,000 video and sound system for LIVE meeting streaming, and it should be running for the next Tavares City Council meetings on Feb. 3rd and Feb. 17 at 4pm on Wednesdays. The funds came from the Federal CARES grants. This is great news because you can watch the meeting LIVE or later and I don't have to make videos anymore. They also will make videos of Planning and Zoning meetings and other committees that meet in the Council Chambers. So when future Cadillac City (once known as Seaplane City) budget hearings are held, you can learn where your taxes are going.
Unless voters replace one of the three big spenders with a fiscal conservative, your taxes will keep going up vs several other Lake County cities.
Vance Jochim
FiscalRangers.com and the Facebook Group FiscalRangersLakeCounty.
Posted Jan. 24, 2021.
