MONROE COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS DISCUSS DRAFT FISCAL YEAR 2020 BUDGET AT PUBLIC WORKSHOP

KEY WEST, FL – The Monroe County Board of County Commissioners met today to view and discuss a draft proposal of the Fiscal Year 2020 budget at a public workshop held at Harvey Government Center in Key West.

 

Monroe County Director of Budget and Finance Tina Boan presented a proposed draft budget with estimates to residential real estate trends, taxable property values, tourist impact taxes, and general fund revenue. The commissioners and staff discussed the budget, hurricane recovery, and the future of Monroe County.

 

“This is a framework of a proposed budget, and this meeting was an opportunity for the commissioners to tell us what they would like to see in the proposed budget in July,” said Boan.

 

The draft proposal was built on a projected 4.5 percent estimated increase in Countywide taxable property values. For the tourist impact tax, the estimates were done with comparisons to 2017, rather than 2018 due to the unpredictability from Hurricane Irma. Accurate numbers are expected in June and early July for the July 22 special meeting. The draft budget has no change to the current millage rate of 2.6957, which has stayed the same the past two years and is the lowest out of the six South Florida counties.

 

Some of the FY 2020 draft budget highlights include:

  • Maintaining current service levels
  • Hurricane expenditure cost share
  • Pay plan and salary adjustment implementation
  • Disaster reserve stabilization
  • Meeting community service delivery demands, with workload increases for fire, life, and property protection improvements, establishment of a parks and recreation department, code compliance, FEMA map changes, and hurricane recovery.

The commissioners stated Fiscal Year 2020 needs to be conservative year working toward hardening already in place infrastructure. “Our parks and beaches are being well utilized, and we should be building upon that,” said Boan.

 

With the draft proposal, a homesteaded residential property with an appraised assessed value of a $350,000 in 2019 (with a 1.9 percent capped increase to property value) would have a $17.93 increase this year with the draft proposed budget, which is $1.49 per month. Along the same lines, a non-homesteaded property would increase by $94.35 this year.

 

The budget process timeline is:

  • June 1 – Deadline for budget submissions from Constitutional Officers
  • July 1 – Property Appraiser certifies property values
  • July 9 – Proposed budget delivered to BOCC to review
  • July 22 – Special budget meeting in Marathon to certify the proposed millage rate to the Property Appraiser; rate goes to tax bill.
  • Sept. 5 – First Public Hearing, Murray Nelson Government Center in Key Largo

At this hearing, the BOCC adopts the tentative millage rate and tentative budget.

  • Sept. 10 – Special Budget Meeting, Marathon Government Center in Marathon

This meeting is for BOCC discussion and direction on the budget.

  • Sept. 20 – Final Public Hearing, Harvey Government Center in Key West

The BOCC adopts the final millage rate and final budget.

 

The Monroe County Office of Budget and Finance provides coordination and development of Fiscal Year budget. The Fiscal Year 2019 budget was $411.5 million. The office also absorbed the impacts of Hurricane Irma’s added expenses in the budget, while still providing for the daily operations, program enhancements, and capital projects and improvements. For the 20th consecutive year, the office has received the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the Government Finance Officers Association.

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