Swapping the Taxes?

Later this morning we will have a committee of the whole meeting.  A large part of the conversation will center on how we pay for the increasing budgetary requirments for our Fire Service in Escambia County.

Costs have escalated and they continue to do so.  The current MSBU structure is coming up about $2 million short every year--necessitating a general fund transfer yearly to cover this shortfall.  

Add in the increasing costs of personnel, raises that we recently gave to keep us competitive with nearby districts, and we are in a position going forward where we will need about an additional $5 million yearly over the next few years to keep up.

So the idea that is being brought forward is an addition of about $40 yearly to the MSBU that residents pay.  This would bring the total (currently $125 per house) to $165 per house.

As I have stated on a number of occassions, I do not support raising year over year rates on existing Escambia County taxpaying property owners.

While I know Fire needs the money, and I want to be supportive of the MSBU along with my counterparts--I want to do it in such a way that the taxpayers are held harmless.

So later this morning I'll put forward the idea of  supporting a $40 dollar increase to the MSBU conditioned on the simultaneous implementation of a commensurate reduction in the ad valorem millage rate of 6.615 mills---down to 6.390 Mills.  This can be accomplished by adding the $40 increase to the MSBU and lowering the millage rate to 6.390 mills which will leave the taxpayers flat as the two will essentially offset each other.  

Now, the good news is that the overall tax roll has had a massive increase this year, approaching a 15% increase.

FY21             $20,902,196,260.00

FY22 (est.)    $23,890,256,161.00 

So if we can lower the ad valorem to 6.390 and increase the MSBU we will:

1.) Set up ECFR with a dedicated funding source going forward for the years to come that meets their budgetary requirements

2.) Increase our ad valorem revenue $13-14 Million over last year's collection

3.) Not increase year over year tax rates on Escambia County Taxpaying property owners.

I hope I can get support for this, but we will see what happens at the meeting.

Otherwise, if we simply levy the static 6.615 Mills to the growing tax roll we will realize nearly a $20 million dollar increase year over year  AND if we also add $40 the MSBU--that would be an additional $5 Million the taxpaying property owners would have to shoulder.  That's $25 Million in additional, new revenue from the property owners year over year.  I think that is too much.

But I'm just one vote.  We will see how things go later this morning....

Two Big Discussions on Tomorrow's Committee of the Whole

Tomorrow we will have two items to consider on our Committee of the Whole Discussion.

Both are important, relevant, and timely.

#1 is the funding of Fire Service locally.  We will discuss whether or not we should increase the MSBU for Escambia County Taxpaying property owners or find some other way to cover an increasingly bigger and bigger shortfall for the Fire Budget locally.  Our Current MSBU generates about $19 Million, but costs are slated to escalate to $24 Million over the next several years, meaning additional revenue will need to come from somewhere.

I have proposed a tax swap to eliminate the MSBU and fund fire with a sales tax--however the earliest this could be implemented and voted upon by the citizens will be 2024--due to onerous state requirements that must be met ahead of a referendum for this tax.

#2 is a discussion about increasing costs for the District 1 Medical Examiner's office (Serving the 1st Judicial Circuit--Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, and Walton Counties) and also the structure of the funding required to construct a new D1 Medical Examiner's facility.  The current facility is woefully inadequate, and the caseload of this office has skyrocketed over the last several years.  The budget request for 2023 has been put forward and represents a nearly $800,000.00 year over year increase.

The funding of the capital costs and the funding of the operational costs will be at the center of the discussion--as a new formula is being put forward that is based upon caseload and population and which lowers Escambia's portion of the equation from 52% to 47% of the costs.  The sticking point will be not on the operational side of the equation (e.g. many understand that Escambia has the highest caseload and population and therefore should pick up a higher share of the operational costs) but on the fixed asset and capital costs (e.g. some feel that fixed asset costs should be evenly split among all four counties and not pro-rated--as the fixed assets and facilities serve all four counties)

So this will be an interesting discussion.

See the proposed D1 Medical Examiner's Budget here

See a power point on increasing costs and cases from the medical examiner's office here