Gulf County looks to lower millage rate

With adoption of a proposed millage rate slated for Wednesday morning, Gulf County is looking to lower its millage rate to just slightly above the rollback rate.

County Administrator Michael Hammond has submitted a budget which seeks to reduce the millage rate from 6.2 to 5.9 mills, which due to a record high tax base that is up by about a half-billion dollars, will still yield an additional $2.3 million in ad valorem tax revenue, for total property tax revenue of about $22.9 million.

The proposed millage is about 5.7 percent above what is generally thought of as the rollback rate, but this slight increase is due to adding in the half-mill paid to each of the four fire districts – St. Joe, Tupelo, Overstreet, and Howard Creek – all unchanged from the current fiscal year.

The municipal service taxing units, all levied to pay debt service, are all slightly below this year’s millage, and when they are factored in, the aggregate taxation is just slightly above the rollback.

“This is the fourth year in a row we’ve cut millage,” said Hammond. “Typically they (county commissioners) don’t change the millage proposal, but they will change budget items.”

Were the county to keep the millage unchanged, he said, the county would glean about $1.2 million more than its proposed millage.

To arrive at the budget, Hammond, Deputy Administrator Kari Summers and their fellow staffers reviewed all the department budgets and ended up with what amounts to a 5.5 percent across the board rise in wages. Some of the roughly 150 county workers may get more, some less, depending on Hammond’s evaluations, and constitutional officers have discretion in how they want to divvy up any additional dollars they receive.

Hammond’s contract calls for a standard annual raise. “For every other county employee it (raises) are up to me and the chairman,” he said.

Hammond said the largest department increase is about $477,000 more for the sheriff’s office, and about $271,500 more for each of the four other constitutional officers, with spending on the school district handled by the school board, separate from the county budget.

Emergency management services will get about a half-million dollars more, with a big chunk of that due to pay adjustments that Hammond implemented during the past year.

“We could not attract paramedics and were having a horrible time at filling our slots,” he said. “To fill those slots it was something we had to do. It just costs.

“There is a small pool of paramedics,” Hammond said. “We try to farm raise them but you farm raise them and they go somewhere else.”

The county administrator put in $100,000 more for firefighter incentives, and a similar boost in spending for county park renovations. The jail will get about $183,000 more this next year, and there will be close to $198,000 more spent on health, dental and life insurance benefits. Hammond said health insurance premiums have gone up about 9 percent, dental coverage about 7 percent and life insurance about 5 to 6 percent more.

The city of Port St. Joe’s summer program will receive $50,000 more in funding, and the library $30,000 more.

Hammond said he foresees that the double digit annual growth in the tax base, up more than 16 percent his year, will begin to plateau.

‘I expect it to be below 10 percent next year,” he said. “You need 4.5 to 5 percent growth just to keep your head above water. If the county can get about 5 percent every year, that’s wonderful.

“Now is the time to cut taxes, but if we spend 16 percent more each year that’s an unsustainable place,” Hammond said. “It’s going to continue to narrow. I don’t expect these double digit increases to keep on.”