Commissioners propose tax cut for Manatee County residents

After three motions, commissioners Jason Bearden and Kevin Van Ostenbridge were successful in pushing through an attempt to reduce Manatee County’s millage rate by .15 mills. 

One mill equals one dollar of tax levied on every $1,000 worth of taxable property. The 2024 millage rate is 6.2326.

In a 4-2 vote on Sept. 12, commissioners tentatively approved a measure that they said would cause Manatee County to give up about $10.5 million in annual revenues. If the .15 mills reduction is passed again at the Sept. 24 Commission meeting, it goes into effect.

Commissioner George Kruse called the move a “fake millage cut” and said there are better ways to help citizens.

"I hate taxes, but we have to be cognizant of future projections," he said. “There's a lot we can do with $10 million, and this isn’t moving the needle for the vast majority of people."

Bearden said he pushed to cut the tax because Manatee County residents are struggling every day to make ends meet and "every penny counts."

His motion to lower the millage by .3 mills failed in a 4-2 vote after Sheila McLean, Manatee County’s Chief Financial Officer, said she didn’t know where the $21 million would come from, but services definitely would have to be reduced.

Van Ostenbridge made a second motion to lower the millage by .2 mills. Commission Chair Mike Rahn switched his vote in favor of the reduction, but the motion failed because of a 3-3 tie. 

Van Ostenbridge made the third and final motion to reduce the millage by .15 mills, and Commissioner Amanda Ballard broke the tie, favoring the motion. 

Commissioners George Kruse and Ray Turner opposed through all three votes. 

Bearden said, in his opinion, there's always a way to find cuts in government. Even though the .15 was a compromise, he was pleased to walk out of the meeting with at least some savings for residents.

“This (President) Biden economy has killed us,” he said. “Anything that I can do to continue to take an ax and knock down that rate, I’ll do. If a profit business can do it, why can’t we?”

Turner said Bearden’s motion was a surprise. In his view, asking staff members to cut their budgets should’ve been a conversation that was had at the start of the budget process in June. 

“The CIP, infrastructure, the Sheriff’s Office — there’s too many things moving right now that we’re committed to, and where do we find the money?” Turner said.

Van Ostenbridge said only his fellow commissioners were surprised by the motion because of Sunshine laws. He said he made it clear to County Administrator Charlie Bishop and Deputy County Administrator Evan Pilachowski that he would be making a motion to cut taxes. Bearden simply beat him to it. 

Amendment 5 being on November’s ballot made both Turner and Kruse wary of the revenue loss. If the amendment passes, which Kruse suspects it will, then homestead property tax exemptions will increase with inflation, meaning the county will collect less property taxes from residents.

“We don’t know what the implication of that ballot initiative is,” Kruse said. “We don’t know what the implication of the affordable housing tax abatement is (Live Local Act). We might end up finding out that we’re losing $10 million to $15 million next year, just organically.” 

Kruse argued that there are more meaningful ways to help citizens. If the $10.5 million was invested into fixing storm water issues, residents would likely save more money on insurance each year than they would through the millage cut.

He wanted to wait it out a year to be safe, especially in light of the board’s recent decision to not apply for special circumstances to raise impact fees to the fullest extent. By Kruse's estimate, that decision already cost the county $585 million over the next five years.

“If you would’ve charged the proper amount of those fees, we would’ve saved $15 million in debt service that could’ve been offset by lowering the taxes to the citizens,” Kruse said to the rest of the board. “We could’ve lowered this by .2 and not cost us a single penny of service whatsoever.” 

Where will $10.5 million come from?

Van Ostenbridge argued that it shouldn’t be “the end of the world” to find $10.5 million in a $1.3 billion budget. 

However, the money does have to come from somewhere and the reduction puts the county into a negative rollback rate of 1.29%.

“What a rollback rate means is that growth in the county is not working on our behalf. It’s actually damaging the county,” McLean said.

McLean listed two main reasons to support that statement: The county’s bond rating, which is the equivalent of an individual’s credit score, will decrease, and the reduction of revenues will require the county to take on more debt. 

At the original requested .3 mill reduction, McLean said it would have meant reduced levels of service or reduced capital infrastructure. 

When asked by Kruse what reduction amount would allow her to sleep at night, McLean replied .05. McLean had recommended a millage rate of 6.6915 mills, which would have kept the operating millage at a positive .97%.

While the reduction places the county in a negative rollback rate, Van Ostenbridge said it sends a strong message that the government is not growing.

At a reduction of .15 mills, Turner said he was comfortable that staff would be able to “figure it out,” and Bishop said it was “doable.” 

“I will remind the board that there are 27 positions (new hires) recommended in the budget,” Bishop said. “Give me an opportunity to sit down with (the deputy administrators and CFO) to see where we can find the money.”

There were 21 new positions requested from seven departments during the original budget presentation on June 12. Public Safety had the largest request as the department asked for nine new staff members for the Emergency Communications Center, Beach Patrol and Code Enforcement. 

Bishop will go before commissioners on Sept. 24 with the solidified plan. The second public hearing is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in the Patricia M. Glass Chambers at the Manatee County Administration Building. 

At that Sept. 24 meeting, the millage rate and FY 2025 budget will be finalized and adopted. 

This story has been updated with the new meeting date, Sept. 24.