Maitland sets tax rate, budget

During Maitland City Council session that lasted for almost four hours Monday, Sept. 25, the council settled on a final millage rate and budget.

In a 3-2 vote, with Councilmen John Lowndes and Mike Thomas dissenting, the council decided to set the operating millage rate for the 2017 tax year at 4.3453 — a 9.77% increase over the rolled back rate of 3.9584.

The voted millage rate was also set to 0.3300 for a combined total rate of 4.6753. 

THE BUDGET

The general fund budget, which was passed once again with the same 3-2 vote, was set for a total of $25,511,959. The utilities fund budget was set to $10,423,200, while $2,631,000 was set for the solid waste budget, and $1,712,000 was allotted to the stormwater environmental utility budget.

Of all the numbers discussed Monday, the most contentious were related to the large fund balance for the Maitland Public Library — which also was asking for an additional $37,000.

“One of the things that concerns me is that they have an unencumbered fund balance of $461,000, and that equals about 65% of their budget,” Thomas said. “They don’t own anything, they don’t maintain anything, so that seems to be excessive to me.

“They seem to have a practice of, when there is a surplus of city funds, if we give them $100,000 and they spend $90,000, they just stick the $10,000 in the bank and come back to us for full allotment and 5% to 10% increases,” he said. “I’m not aware of any government body that operates like that.”

Of the $461,000, Thomas said about $175,000 in city overages should go back to the city to be used for other items. Another part of the library’s current fund stems from when it was bought by the city in 1972.

Thomas suggested having the city help oversee and manage the financial aspect of the library, although Vice Mayor Joy Goff-Marcil disagreed.

“The library is run much more efficiently than Orange County’s system,” Goff-Marcil said. “If they are running efficiently and they are saving for whatever reason, which I don’t know what that’s about, they shouldn’t be punished for being efficient.”

Councilman John Lowndes brought into discussion the dramatic rise in the library’s funds, which rose from $559,000 in 2011 to the current request of $750,000.

Library Director Stacie Larson said the rate increases were due primarily to giving competitive pay for librarians and those who help around the library, because currently it’s difficult for the library to be competitive with other areas in the state.

“Our salaries are still low relative to other libraries,” Larson said. “When we were hiring a new manager, I talked to many candidates and said, ‘I’ve been with you in leadership workshops and I’d love you to think about becoming our manager,’ and they said that it would be a pay cut.”

Another cause of the spike was new technology, and the cost of bringing it to the library — such as e-books and other items, she said.

After another hour of discussion on the budget issue of the library, which included looking at providing extra funds for health insurance, the council decided to take $148,000 from the library’s budget and earmark it for road resurfacing. It also allocated $30,000 to the library to help cover health-insurance costs.