Commission adopts rollback rate

By John Labriola - Thanks to a new state law requiring supermajorities to raise taxes, the Citrus County Commission for the first time in years last week adopted the rollback rate of 6.7382 mills for the 2026-27 general fund budget. 

Commissioner Jeff Kinnard initially moved to adopt this year's tax rate of 6.9898 mills, the rate
recommended by the county administration, which still would have raised taxes on most homeowners because of rising property values. The motion failed because Commissioners Rebecca Bays and Janet Barek voted no, denying it the supermajority it would have needed to pass.

Bays then moved to adopt the rollback rate, which was approved 4-1, with liberal Commissioner Holly Davis voting no.

The rollback rate is the property tax rate that would generate about the same amount of tax revenue as the previous year, leaving out revenue from new construction and other additions to the tax roll. But because of all the new construction, the county will still collect more money even with the rollback rate. A mill equals $1 in taxes for every $1,000 of taxable property value.

It's the first time in her four-year term that Bays, who is up for reelection, has voted for the rollback rate.

The commission could cut the tax rate even further at one of its September budget hearings but cannot raise it. Interim Budget Director Barbara Luckham said the rollback rate will cut the proposed budget by about $4 million, which is what the county had budgeted for road resurfacing. 

Bays and Barek want the administration to come back with more efficiencies, some of which they identified during the preliminary budget meeting. The county needs to begin seriously looking at cutting unnecessary spending, they said, especially given this November's constitutional amendment to reduce homesteaded property taxes, which if approved will require counties to dramatically cut back on waste. Finegan encouraged the public to demand efficiencies so the savings can be invested in road resurfacing this coming year.

"If the community still wants to see a hefty portion to roads, we're going to have a lot more work to do and cut somewhere else, and that's OK, but I need to hear from you all and we need to convey that message to staff," she said.

The commission also adopted the rollback rate for the library and health department budgets 

There will be two budget hearings in September: on Sept. 10 and Sept. 21.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Library board bows to haters of Charlie Kirk

Image
By John Labriola - The Citrus County Library Advisory Board (LAB) meeting last week turned into a hate fest against Charlie Kirk, as leftists angered by a motion to commemorate him with a library display outnumbered residents supporting the idea. Rita Fox of Lecanto said Kirk, who was assassinated on Sept. 10 by an angry leftist, deserved it.  "When you preach hate, things like that are bound to happen," she said, attacking Kirk for rejecting Marxist ideas like critical race theory, for which she accused him of "white supremacy." "In the end, the violence he rationalized and the racial fear he amplified converged in his own fate," Fox threateningly stated.  Later in the meeting, she and another liberal woman stormed out shouting obscenities at LAB Chairman Justin Strickland.  Other leftists said Kirk was a "racist," "bully," "bigot," "homophobic," "incredibly divisive," and a "white Christian nationali...
Read more

Citrus County among biggest spenders in the state, Ingoglia says

Image
By John Labriola - Citrus County is one of the biggest spenders in the state and is overtaxing its citizens to the tune of over $39 million a year. That's according to Florida's Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, who held a press conference in Lecanto on Tuesday to share the bad news about the county's finances. Ingoglia, who previously served as this area's state senator, has been presenting his findings on overspending by cities and counties across the state as the Florida Legislature gets ready to hold a special session next month to place a constitutional amendment on the November ballot to reduce or eliminate property taxes for homesteaded properties. He has identified $2.02 billion in overspending by over 15 governments. Ingoglia's methodology involves taking a local government's 2019-2020 general fund budget and indexing it for inflation and population growth to determine how much it should be spending. Anything above that, he says, is just wasteful...
Read more

Chaos erupts at commission meeting

Image
By John Labriola - A discussion over the Betz Farm land sale descended into chaos this past week as Citrus County commissioners accused each other of being corruptly influenced by developers' campaign contributions, while an altercation involving Citrus County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Josh Wooten led Commission Chairwoman Diana Finegan to call for his arrest. The commission voted 3-2 for a motion by Commissioner Holly Davis to rescind its earlier cancellation  of the $6 million sale to Bravo Land Group, as both Davis and Commissioner Rebecca Bays changed their earlier votes, saying they were not aware that it could cost the county more than its $100,000 insurance deductible if there is a lawsuit, including $360,000 in commission fees to the listed realtor and over $1 million in damages that the developer is now claiming. Commissioner Janet Barek, who made the original motion on April 14 to cancel the sale to preserve the 350-acre property, based on County Attorney Den...
Read more