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Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL)
July 28, 2012
Bunnell looks to cut taxes, raise salaries
Author: AARON LONDON - STAFF WRITER
BUNNELL - Bunnell residents will get a tax cut while city employees will get raises if a
proposed budget is approved by city commissioners.
City Manager Armando Martinez and city staff presented a budget proposal during Thursday's
workshop that would give city employees a 5 percent cost-of-living raise while keeping the
property-tax rate at same levels.
"Our employees deserve a raise. It's because of them we're prospering," Martinez said. "The city
of Bunnell made it a practice to run the city like a business and a lot of revenue budgeted to be
used was not used and carried forward."
Martinez said the city is able to offer employees a pay increase without raising the property tax
rate because it has been able to increase its contingency fund from just under $300,000 to $1.2
million.
The budget and tax plan recommended by city staff was one of three options presented to city
commissioners. The other options included giving employees a 5 percent raise and increasing the
property tax rate; or keeping the tax rate at the current level with no raise for city workers.
The current property tax rate in the city is $6.95 per $1,000 of taxable property value. The rolledback
rate, which would produce the same revenue as the current rate using new assessments of
the same properties, is $7.59 per $1,000 of taxable property value. If approved by
commissioners, the proposed rate would represent a 9.2 percent decrease in property taxes.
A homeowner with a house valued at $125,000 with a $50,000 homestead exemption would pay
$521.25. The city expects to generate $942,258 of its annual general fund budget of $4 million
from property taxes.
Martinez defended the raises for city workers, saying it has been several years since they have
received a pay increase.
"I think it is something that's the right thing to do," he said.
To bolster the point for commissioners, city staff prepared a graph comparing taxable property
values and property tax rates for Flagler County, Palm Coast and Flagler Beach with Bunnell.
"All the other entities, with the exception of Palm Coast in 2010, increased their millage every
year," said Finance Director Cissy Bertha.
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