Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2009/06/10/0610wmdbudget.html
The South Florida Water Management District will not hike its property tax rate, despite plans to finance the state's priciest-ever conservation land purchase amid a historic plunge in real estate values, leaders said today.
The agency expects revenues to drop some $340 million this year, in part because property values across the district's 16 counties in South and Central Florida are estimated to plunge 12.3 percent, water managers said in a budget workshop today.
The district is planning a $1.5 billion budget for the 2010 spending year, which begins Oct. 1.
The agency's current tax rate is 62.4 cents for each $1,000 of taxable value. At that rate, the owner of a $250,000 home with a $50,000 homestead exemption would pay $124.80 to the district.
The discussion came as the district prepares to finance Gov. Charlie Crist's monumental Everglades restoration plan: a $536 million purchase of 73,000 acres of U.S. Sugar Corp. farmland.
The concept calls for eventually building a chain of reservoirs and filter marshes across the land that could recreate the historic, flowing connection between Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades.
The land deal alone will saddle the district with $45.7 million in annual debt payments over the next 30 years, budget director Doug Bergstrom told the district's board today at a meeting in Naples.
Water managers maintained today that the deal with U.S. Sugar - downsized twice from Crist's original plan to buy out the company entirely for $1.75 billion - would not impair the district's ability to perform its core duties of flood control and water supply management.
The one silver lining to this year's dire budget season: Water managers are optimistic that district-wide property values may actually drop less than 12.3 percent, as June estimates tend to be overly conservative, said Bergstrom.
"I'm pretty sure we're going to have some more money to work with," Bergstrom said.
The board will meet in July to review the proposed budget before holding two public hearings in September. The district also must submit the budget to Crist, who has the power to veto it.