State of the City of Hallandale Beach pt. 3

The State of the City of Hallandale Beach continued, in the  President’s memo he believes private industry  is best suited, when it comes to stations. We certainly hope so.  Community  Development Block Grants have been totally eliminated.  These grants are formula based depending on the size of the city. Big city means a big fund. As a non-entitlement city with a population under 50,000  last year we received 330,000.  These funds were  used partly for the Hepburn Senior Center and for a smaller drainage improvement.

Cuts to FEMA from what I could gather are not tied to preparedness and disaster response. They had many other programs that were not purely emergency  disaster related. They are now focused on their core mission with much of the responsibility  passed on to the states. What will be interesting is how States in turn  will be able to deal with the added tax burden.

Interestingly, a debate has begun in Florida about cutting property taxes. As a note the State of Florida Government does not  collect  property taxes. They receive  limited real estate transactional costs. Their biggest revenue? You guessed it, sales tax. So you can see why it is so easy  for the  Governor  legislators  to make these promises.

Here is a brief explanation. The top three ways to generate tax dollars are: Property Tax, Sales Tax and Income tax. Florida  does not even have Income tax.  Florida is not even in the top ten of tax burden states that is why people have flocked here. According to the Tax Foundation it is actually number 4 overall as the lowest tax burden state. Wyoming is number 1.  Early predictions suggest the state's sales tax of 6% would need to  be increased well over 12%  to fund their needs. Do not be fooled, tourists will not be paying  a majority, Tourism  accounts for 15% of stale tax revenues. The increase will be felt by all.  

I have also  heard  22%  and up will be needed  to fill the cities ’  GAP based on the essential  services provided. On average 45-60%  of cities' budgets go towards Public  Safety.  We are  now rightfully calling this whole  push as a “Defund the Police Bill”. How ironic in a Republican  controlled state. This issue is one we are already following extremely close   along with all our partners.

I will leave you with this: Every city is bound by a cap of 10 mills. So whether you are homesteaded or not, that's the highest we can set the tax rate. One could argue that this cap  is actually artificially low taking into  consideration the  costs of the services we provide.  The variation comes with the taxable values. The greater value = greater the tax. Homestead values  are capped by  3%.

Not a perfect system  for  new owners or part time owners  but loved by full-time residents. There is a reason it  is called Save Our Homes. SO again how does  this all affect our budget. Surprisingly not much in the current year.  But with possible property tax cuts , inflation, market changes and tariffs we will need to take  a very  long term strategic approach on how we address paying for our  services and infrastructure when it comes to our millage rate.  

For our city we create our budget not expecting anything from the Federal Government or the State.  Grants do matter. If there are any available we go after them. Since  2018  we have received over $49 million in various grants through the federal and state. These funds allowed us to move more projects forward on our list of needs.

How is our budget? We have a core mission to provide vital essential services . Police Fire Emergency Services Sanitation Services ,water,  wastewater,  stormwater and maintain public assets like city roads and parks.  We can provide services directly with our own employees or contract out.    In our city we have a combination.

Our Budget Team Lead by Budget Director Natasha  Mazzie has put together   a great brochure on our budget. We  have a 205  million dollar projected budget. 113 of which designated the General Fund which revenue source is property taxes. 55 millions Enterprise fund which include sanitations and all utilities and paid mainly through user Fees.  Over 60 million in projects. 

We like to take a zero base budget approach  but we  have operational obligations when it comes to debt, employee contracts and retirement  benefits. And unlike your business we do not get to choose what services to cut, we must deliver them one way or another.

Public Safety is and always will be the biggest expenditure. Hallandale Beach  Police Department is one of the finest with the best response times nationally.  We have been  State  Accredited for five years and have just gone through our new five year accreditation. We have been recommended once again for full accreditation without any  recommended findings.

We continue to invest in technology. As promised last year.  We are on schedule with  building  out our crime prevention systems. Dig Baby Dig! By this year’s end we will have  every single entrance point  covered with License Plate Readers.  CCTVs cameras will run the entirety of Hallandale Beach Boulevard which are real time manned at the BSO  Center. This year we will continue to add additional manning. Spotshoter sensors will cover the entire city.  Promises Made Kept  and Delivered .     

Fire and EMS are contracted out to BSO. We still pay for all the costs including staffing , facilities and equipment.  I had not been a fan of this contract as it did not include an emergency coordinator which  used to be the Fire Chief that worked citywide. There were built in cost increases ranging upward to  10 % and management of the department runs over 1 million year.  With Chief Fucci coming on board it has made a vast difference.

He brought with him a wealth of field and budget experience . His  leadership  has also brought  stability and renewed community involvement. We recently  found out that BSO is actually having their own difficulty with staff retention and recruitment due to  competitive  salaries at other agencies .

Due to these issues they performed a Salary  Compensation Study . In order to compete with Palm Beach and Dade  County  salaries,  They have been  proposed a 20 % increase over the next five year contract. At this time Dr Earle is proposing a  strategic financial plan to smooth out the increase over the next 5 year. The contract still needs to be completed and brought to the commission. The Fire Fee is a means to cover Fire Services  EMS is not covered.

Current revenue  from  the  Fire Fee is 12 million. This is combined with other  revenues  including 1.1 million in collected ambulance  fees and 2 million from the  State Insurance Pension contributions to help pay for this vital service  but our BSO contract is  24 million. You heard me a 9 million dollar Gap that falls on the general fund. At current levels it is an  unsustainable burden  on our General Fund .

As always, I am available anytime for your questions, concerns, and ideas to make our city a better place at phone/text 954-632-5700 or you can email me at jcooper@cohb.org. Please visit me on my Facebook page at Mayor Joy Cooper. Like, follow, and share.