High Springs City Commission votes to raise property tax rate by 27 percent, passes 2024 budget
BY DAVID LIGHTMAN
HIGH SPRINGS, Fla. – At their September 14 regular meeting, the High Springs City Commission adopted an increased property tax rate of 6.99 mills on first reading. They also adopted an increased 2024 City budget on first reading. These items will be revisited for second readings on September 25.
Property taxes
City Attorney Scott Walker introduced Resolution 2023-N: “The tentative operating millage rate of 6.9900 mills is approved by this resolution. It will no longer be a tentative millage rate, it’ll be the millage rate that we assess if that’s what is approved by you this evening. It is greater than the rollback rate of 5.5089 by 26.89 percent. So, at the appropriate time, there will be the process of setting the millage rate. The public hearing will be held to consider the final millage rate and final budget for General Municipal purposes, which will be on Monday, September 25 at 6:30 p.m.”
City Manager: Increase is necessary to balance the budget, given inflation
City Manager Ashley Stathatos spoke: “Our proposed rate is 6.99. The amount that has been budgeted in the budget is 6.99. The impact of this is around $100 per $100,000 assessed value per home. Staff is proposing the increase in the millage basically to balance the budget. It’s not for anything special. It’s because the cost of fuel, the cost of insurance, the cost of supplies, basically all the things that go along with inflation have impacted us, too. We’ve cut the budget down as much as we can without having drastic implications to service levels, and we find it necessary to request the extra millage.”
Commissioner Katherine Weitz asked, “I don’t know if we can really discuss a millage until we’ve gone through the budget. Are we supposed to pass the millage rate before we go over the budget?”
Stathatos responded, “I think we discussed the budget in our workshop meetings and the millage as well. And the meetings I’ve had with you one-on-one.” Weitz continued, “I just wasn’t aware that we had to adopt a new millage rate before presenting the budget and trying to make, you know, any comments to the budget as presented.”
During a short discussion between the commissioners and mayor, it was explained that there will be a second reading on September 25, and it will be possible to lower (but not raise) the proposed 6.99 rate at that time.
Grunder: “It looks like unfortunately this is what is going to need to happen.”
City Commissioner Tristan Grunder spoke: “I think it’s worth just saying that… this does not come easy for any of us up here sitting right now because I think we all understand where we’re at as a country right now. And everything is going up, but unfortunately, I mean, running these numbers back, forward, and everything else, it doesn’t look like there’s another way to get there right now. So I’m hoping we can come up with something else and maybe look at some things. But I mean, you know, it’s not nothing that any of us want to do, and I hope we can bring it back later when other things come online that we thought might be online this year that have not been. But yeah, it looks like unfortunately this is what is going to need to happen.”
Stathatos interjected, “I mean there have been substantial decreases in the budget. It does include… [a 3% raise] for employees, but directors are not getting raises. Includes only the most basic necessary travel for people for certifications so they don’t lose those. You know, we will probably be freezing some positions as the year goes by. We’re going to continue to look for cost-savings measures throughout the year, but even with… the addition of the proposed millage rate, it’s still going to be extremely tight, and we… likely will still have to take from fund balance.”
Public comment
During public comment, a member of the audience who did not identify herself spoke: “When we have our budgets at home, we have a certain amount of money, and then we make it work the best we can. We don’t continue to add things on because there’s no more revenue coming in, and to expect people to incur that kind of a millage rate when we know when we get to hear the rest of the budget the utility bills and a number of other things are going to raise our consumers’ cost tremendously… And I understand that we’re all facing it, but that’s exactly why our City needs to look at other ways to make cuts.”
Stathatos commented, “The only project added in the general fund this year was one night officer, and that was for safety purposes, so there wasn’t a lot of extraneous stuff, if any, added to the budget, and we did substantial cuts.”
Donald Alderman spoke next: “You guys haven’t done everything. You’re letting revenue sit out there in taxes… The state of Florida charter says any enclave or any island can be forcibly annexed in without choice. We’re sitting here dancing for years when every house along the river there can be annexed in. You can annex in Camp Kulaqua. You can annex all these people in, and we can gain more revenue that way… Send out letters… ‘You’re in the city. Tough, it’s the way it is.’ We’re providing services for them now, police and fire… We need to start making them people pay for the services they’re getting for free, and they’re high-dollar along that river. They need to be paying.”
Commissioner Ross Ambrose explained, “That’s been a policy of the City, not to forcibly annex any property owner out of respect for property owner rights. That policy may need to change, and we should have a discussion about that. But we can’t snap our fingers and do that.”
The unidentified audience member spoke again and pointed out the City spent $1.2 million for AMI smart electric meters but has yet to install a single meter, and the city has a fleet of brand new vehicles when it is lacking funds. Stathatos said the meters have been delivered to the City and will be installed in the near future.
Grunder made a motion to adopt the resolution, and Commissioner Bryan Williams seconded the motion. The motion passed 4-1, with Weitz in dissent, although Mayor Gloria James announced, “Resolution 2023-N passes four to zero.”
Budget
The next item on the agenda was Ordinance 2023-11, adopting the 2023-2024 fiscal year budget. Stathatos gave an overview: “The proposed FY24 budget is $17.5 million general fund revenues. And expenses are $7.2 million. Water and sewer funds, $1.4 and $2 million respectively. Solid Waste $1.75 million. Building fund $412,000… Fire control $2.5 million, Wild Spaces Public Places $954,000… CRA $447,540, so that does include some fund balance rolled up in there, cemetery funds $66,954. And then the next slide breaks down the departments in the general fund.”
Leasing vs. purchasing vehicles
Weitz asked the City Manager about the City’s policy of leasing vehicles instead of purchasing them and the comparative costs. High Springs longtime resident Stacey Gay addressed the issue: “(I’ve) been here 42 years, used to be part owner of the Chevrolet dealer. The City bought a few vehicles from us over the years, and we tried to provide a service, but I’ve never heard of a City leasing a vehicle for anything. That’s ridiculous. That is a waste of money and the interest charged is per payment, and it’s usually a lot more cost in the end that you may not be aware of… I’ve seen some very nice pickups the City runs around in here. They used to buy straight trucks, you know the bare-bones. They didn’t have to have all the leather seats, the power windows, and the aluminum wheels, and those kinds of things. I could show them how to save a little money on that for fleet vehicles and show them how to get fleet prices. I don’t know who the purchaser is for those, but the lease was not the way to go… I remember the City used to even buy used vehicles from me because they were in a budget crunch, and I’d say, ‘Give me two weeks. Let me see what I can find you.’ And a lot of times I could save them 30 or 40 percent on a one-year-old vehicle and it would still last the same amount of time.… The lease company is going to make the money.”
A member of City staff explained that the leases include a buy-out clause. For example, police cars can be purchased at the end of a four-year lease for $8,000. Other types of vehicles may cost $10,000 or $12,000.
After the staff member discussed how he thought it would cost more in the short term to purchase the vehicles, Mr. Gay, while seated, said, “We would own those vehicles, though.” The staff member replied to him, “We own them now.” Gay responded, “No, you don’t. It belongs to the lease company.”
The mayor and Williams admonished Gay for speaking while not recognized. Walker said, “We’re going to have civility in the house tonight, and I respect that you are acknowledging that. So, Madam Mayor recognizes citizens that want to speak. So, before you speak on an issue, what I would request that you do is raise your hand. … And Madam Mayor may not recognize you on this because I think you’ve already been up and been recognized one time.”
The staff member called Gay back to the podium and explained that the City had ordered basic versions of most of the City vehicles but had been delivered luxury versions due to scarce availability in 2020 and 2021. No one addressed the extra costs associated with insuring the more expensive vehicles compared to the basic versions or whether the leasing costs were higher because the vehicles were more expensive.
Nancy Piety spoke: “When it comes to your I.T. budget… you’re paying $14,000 a month. Okay, so when you said, ‘I’m not very versed in I.T.,’ I totally understand. But when you say you’re not very versed, that’s why you’re getting taken advantage of… You’re paying debt services, and you’re paying off bonds. These are on projects that you’ve done years ago that you still haven’t paid off bonds on, and you still have debt service on them. So my question for you is–you’re going to do new projects; you have yet to pay off old projects. You are buying new cars; you have yet to pay off old cars. This is a compounding problem… We made a bad decision and went with leasing, and we’re going to continue to compound that bad decision.”
Ambrose made a motion to pass Ordinance 2023-11, and Grunder seconded the motion. The vote was 4-1 with Weitz in dissent, and once again James announced, “Approved, four to zero.”
General public comment
Piety spoke again during general public comment: “Commissioner Ambrose, you had said that you were voting for the budget even though you weren’t happy that you didn’t feel like you had time and you didn’t feel like you had all the facts. I understand that. I understand that that is an issue for you on a conscience level. What I think I want to reiterate is that everyone on that commission should have that same feeling, and if you don’t know what every line item on that budget was but you still voted yes to increase these people’s property taxes, and you’re going to vote next week to increase these people’s water and sewer taxes, then shame on you. That’s lazy. Please do the work.”
Stathatos said, “Commissioner Ambrose keeps me on my toes. He does the work, and he does the work on every item. I get more questions from him than most commissioners in my entire career. They’re very detailed questions, and there’s like five questions in each one question. And… he brings up great points, things that I don’t even think about, and I learn from him, so I appreciate him. And to ever say that he doesn’t do his homework every weekend, he does his work… and I respond to it.”
Oh how easy it is for public officials to squander other people’s money!
We can all thank Brandon for this
Right – Joe Biden is responsible for High Springs’ Millage rate – right.
Joe Biden is DIRECTLY responsible for the increased costs to the city. It’s called inflation. And it wildly increased under Biden due to his myopic policies that forced us deeper into debt and increased our daily costs. So, yes, Red is ‘right’.
Anyone who thinks presidents should get the blame for inflation going up or the credit for it going down doesn’t understand basic economics.
Inflation is occurring in part due to the 9 trillion dollars spent by Trump increasing the debt and hence the interest due. Biden has reduced the debt enormously as did Obama and Clinton. Biden has done amazing things for this country in a very short time and while fighting a Republican Congress. Learn and vote accordingly. We do better under Democrats, much better.
“The U.S. national debt grew by $2.11 trillion during President Biden’s first year in office. The U.S. government’s total public debt outstanding has ballooned to $29.87 trillion at Biden’s anniversary mark. Split between the country’s 129,931,000 households, that’s about $229,891 per American household.”
https://blog.independent.org/2022/02/02/the-growth-of-the-national-debt-under-president-biden/
You are horribly wrong if you think Biden reduced US debt. That 2.11 trillion $ figure has grown substantially since these numbers were published in 2/22.
Trump added almost $8 trillion to the national debt while in office.
“The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office. That’s nearly twice as much as what Americans owe on student loans, car loans, credit cards and every other type of debt other than mortgages, combined, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It amounts to about $23,500 in new federal debt for every person in the country.
The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration, according to a calculation by Eugene Steuerle, co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. And unlike George W. Bush and Abraham Lincoln, who oversaw the larger relative increases in deficits, Trump did not launch two foreign conflicts or have to pay for a civil war…”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/01/14/trump-legacy-national-debt-increasee/
Trump Derangement Syndrome strikes again!
Oh yeah, Potato Head indeed HAS done amazing things like: abandon Americans and friendly Afghans to the tender mercies of the Taliban. That truly was amazing….Stopping the pipeline while the cost of oil soars, also amazing. Your take on the Biden catastrophe is also amazing.
Covid $$$ ballooned the money supply, that’s on Trump’s watch brother. Sorry to tell you.
Welcome to little Gainesville! Little City run by the same Circus Clowns.
Why isn’t development paying for itself? Hmmm
Commissioner Katherine Weitz asked, “I don’t know if we can really discuss a millage until we’ve gone through the budget. Are we supposed to pass the millage rate before we go over the budget?”
Can you say line-item veto?
Katherine Weitz seems to be the only one with a clue.
Katherine Weitz, always ready for every meeting. Weitz will ask the questions but then listen for the train whistle of the “ Ross Ambrose Express” as a vote is called for.
All aboard, as the other three skip
up on cattle car. Often singing
kumbaya.
Our current Mayor Gloria James will erroneous will announce motion passed 4-0!
Weitz is now obviously invisible.
Relax we were always a railroad town!
Thank you Mr. Lightman for this excellent summary of the meeting. I appreciate your comprehensive and accurate summary!
It’s wonderful to see an honest article on the commission meeting for High Springs. Mayor James’ comment prior to voting on the budget was something to the effect that I think we all know what we have to do. Commissioner Weitz is the only one who is questioning line items and was downplayed, in my opinion, by VM Ambrose, saying that he understood her questioning so many issues as that is what he did as a new commissioner. She’s been been on the commission for two years! Mayor James needs to recognize the votes as 4-1, rather than 4-0. And CM Stathatos’ defense of VM Ambrose was so inappropriate. An endorsement of his campaign made in a public meeting! I’ve heard the other side of her story of her receiving long emails on weekends. She should publicly apologize for her comments, meant to set the record straight for Nancy Piety.
Typical tyrannical city commission. Citizen has money saving offer and they jump down his throat.
It is foolish to lease patrol cars! Commissioners do not need a city vehicle contrary to what they may believe.
As for the outrageous tax hike to “balance the budget,” more tax payers money for them to squander away with no accountability.
Must be related to the Gainesville Commissioners?
They’re cut from the same cloth, or should I say feed from the same trough.
High Springs isn’t the town it once was. It’s become infested with liberal ideologies that fled south to escape the wastelands of the northeast.
If you would enforce the long vehicles parking on Main you would raise a substantial amount of money. Every department should begin with zero dollars , look at the balances left over, then prioritize needs not wants. New city vehicles shouldn’t be very high on anyone’s list. A good maintenance program would extend the useful life by 5-7 years. Fleet price is a sure way to save money. Citizens on fixed income seem to be the losers in this budget cycle.
Glad I don’t live in High Springs….
For the last three years, there has been a “voting block” going on in this Commission. 4-1 on every vote as they follow Ross Ambrose’s lead on every issue. If you doubt it just check the minutes. Our current Mayor Gloria James still doesn’t understand Katherine Weitz voted it is 4-1. Her vote just doesn’t disappear because she didn’t jump on the train.
The City Manager owns an apology from exactly where she made her endorsement for Ross Ambrose. It’s been pathetic what’s been going on in High Springs, the “Wall Dog” City in Florida.
That also was passed 4-1 and led by Ross Ambrose as well. Most of the citizens are not aware of the additional $18,000 that Mr. Ambrose cost the City by asking our City Attorney additional help to stop the citizens move to not have bill board murals. That time was above his normal duties and he charged for everything Ross Ambrose called him about! It’s your tax dollars and they want more of it.
We need two new City Commissioners this November. Change is desperately called for.
High Springs did not seem to have these problems until people wanted to become Big City. Too many subdivisions starting with Bailey Estates. Drive by the entrance off of 190 Ave and look across the street at all the tree limbs sitting on the power lines dragging them down. I believe that’s city property. So sooner or later the power will go out for those house outside of Bailey Estates. The people who moved to High Springs in recent years to escape big city ideas and taxes have ruined the small town culture. All I hear when I am in High Springs are people complaining the town needs this here and that there. Along with they have it in Gainesville they need one here. Well maybe they need to move to Gainesville. We do not need restaurants that do not cater to local dining. Almost all of them cost at least a days pay for two to eat at. We didnt need a miniature golf course or more plans of subdued ision the local streets can not continue to handle the wear and tear of construction vehicles. All the city does is pothole patch and never repair or repaint the lines on city roads. All this BIG CITY fantasy is doing is killing local family businesses and killing a great small town.
How can our “mayor” state the vote is 4-0 when there is a no vote? What is wrong with these people? Time for a change! Our city commission is just like DC but just a smaller version.
From the quotes in this article, it seems that the City Manager likes to talk down to, and be disrespectful to the citizens. If that is true, that is totally unacceptable behavior.
Doesn’t this process sound an awful lot like “We have to pass it to see what’s in it”? You balance your budget by adjusting your expenses to the income you have, not by jacking up everyone’s rates to cover what you ‘want’.
Forget about running a small business, have any of these four even balanced their own household checkbooks? Extra money doesn’t just magically appear for regular citizens from their neighbors.
As for the gentleman that feels entitled to annex people outside of the city limits against their wishes – their money is not yours to take. The saying ‘Stay in your lane’ comes to mind.
Perhaps the citizens of High Springs should take a page from his playbook, though. When they pay their taxes, deduct 27% from the bill and write “Tough. It’s the way it is.”
27%????? who are these people??? I am barely getting by now…. How do you tell your family they only get one meal a day now because we had to choose between homeless and hungry!!!
City officials drive new, decked out vehicles while I am still driving a 2007 vehicle…………. How dare you take food from my children!!! Live within your means! Don’t steal from me!!!!