Mary Kate Leming's Blog Posts Tagged 'taxes' (20)

By Tim Pallesen

    

County and municipal officials are warning voters to brace for higher property taxes if they approve tax breaks for homes that don’t have tax exemptions now.

    Amendment Four on the Nov. 6 ballot would give property tax exemptions to snowbirds, first-time home buyers and owners of rental property.

    Coastal communities are most concerned about the reduction in tax revenue from their many winter homes.

    County government would…

By Tim O’Meilia

    

Imagine unmanned drones patrolling the Manalapan shoreline or helium-filled balloons surveilling the beach or infra-red cameras spying north and south after dark along the oceanfront. However fantastic and unlikely — except perhaps the cameras — those are some of the solutions town commissioners learned could be used to combat beach-going trespassers.

    Town commissioners will consider those and more mundane and practical solutions, such as…

By Tim Pallesen



    Ocean Ridge commissioners have proposed an increase in next year’s property tax rate of 9.52 percent.

     “I don’t see any way that we’re not going to raise the millage [rate],” Mayor Geoffrey Pugh said before the 3-2 commission vote to up this year’s rate of $5.25 per $1,000 of assessed value to $5.75 for the budget year that begins Oct. 1.

    The increase would add $500 to the $5,750 tax bill this year for the owner of a home…

By Tim Pallesen



Delray Beach commissioners must cut $4 million from a $97 million budget proposal to avoid raising the city’s current property tax rate.

City Manager David Harden presented his proposal to the city commission July 17, recommending that $1.6 million be taken from the city’s reserves to cover a portion of the revenue shortfall.

The city’s current tax rate of $7.19 per $1,000 of assessed value equals a $7,190 city tax bill for the owner of a…

By Tim O’Meilia

    

The South Palm Beach Town Council set a tentative tax rate of $4.39 per $1,000 of taxable property value for next year, but promised to try to trim that figure during budget workshops and hearings this month and in September.

    The new rate would be a 1.6 percent increase over the current $4.32 rate if it remains unchanged.

The rate would bring in roughly the same amount of property tax as this year. The town’s property values…

By Tim O’Meilia



For the fourth consecutive year Briny Breezes homeowners likely will pay the maximum tax rate allowed by law — $10 for every $1,000 of taxable property value.

The tentative rate set by town aldermen after two budget workshops and a council meeting in July also means homeowners will pay the same amount of town taxes as this year if their property value remains the same.

Alderman Sue Thaler opposed the maximum rate. “In a town this small,…

By Steve Plunkett



    The recent years of low or no tax increases appear to be over in Boca Raton.

    City Manager Leif Ahnell proposed that property owners pay $3.66 per $1,000 of taxable value for the coming budget year, up 4.3 percent from this year’s $3.51 rate.

    “Remember, this is the maximum. You can always lower it in September but you can’t increase it beyond this,” Ahnell said, adding that his rate would provide $250,000 for security at the…

By Steve Plunkett



    Gulf Stream town leaders have abandoned hope of recovering any property taxes that residents of the annexed pocket are paying Palm Beach County for services they no longer receive.

    At the town’s urging, County Commissioner Steven Abrams met with the county administrator, budget director and fire chief to get back some of the roughly $240,000 that pocket property owners paid for fire protection in fiscal 2011.

    “Unfortunately, county…

By Emily J. Minor

Briny Breezes Mayor Roger Bennett told town officials recently they need to plan for his retirement. He wants to give up the mayor’s seat so he and his wife,

Barbara, can do some more traveling.

“I

would like…

By Margie Plunkett

The official word on estimated property values in Palm Beach County that came out in late May confirmed what many already anticipated as another down year for taxable

property values — and for municipal coffers.

Taxable values fell in a range from 6.8…