Local governments' budgets get initial OK, final hearings and approvals coming soon

Both the Leon County and Tallahassee city commissions have given the first greenlight for their proposed 2025 budgets, both of which feature property tax increases, though their rates aren't going up.

But there is still one more round of hearings to go before they get the all-clear.

In a two-week span, the commissions met for their monthly meetings ? the city commission will meet one more time this month ? which involved public hearings for their upcoming budgets.

The spending plans have divided each commission as they disagree over ballooning budgets, concerns of overspending and across-the-board pay raises for employees.

Previous reporting from the Tallahassee Democrat has shown that the 10% increase in property values from 2023 to 2024 means the city is expected to reap $6 million in additional revenue over last year, while the county anticipates raising nearly $19 million more.

Despite the raise in property tax, the proposed budgets are a far cry from last year. That's when city commissioners voted to increase their tax rate to fund nearly $10 million more for police, and county commissioners doubled the EMS tax, the first increase in the history of the ambulance service. City and county fire service and other fees also rose in 2023.

Several residents showed up to express concern over the city's budget, but the county's Sept. 17 meeting was relatively quiet in comparison.

No surprise: City commissioners continue 3-2 split on budget

The city commission has been consistently split on the budget, in typical 3-2 fashion, since the very beginning of the budget process.

Following a round of public speakers, who criticized city leaders for excessive police spending, local businessman and longtime City Hall critic Erwin Jackson blasted them for tax increases. He also slammed a proposed charter amendment allowing for a 100% pay increase for commissioners, from roughly $45,000 to about $90,000.

Commissioner Jeremy Matlow has been against the tax increase since it was proposed. He has also expressed concern about pay raises built into the budget, which would include employees such as the city manager, who is currently paid $272,935 and the city attorney, who is paid $230,048.

"On employee positions, I don't think looking at across-the-board (raises) for every single position makes sense. We don't do that in our fire department. We look at ... a comparable market rate for an individual position," Matlow said. "In upper city management, we pay nearly $1.5 million (in total) for assistant city managers and city managers, while our peer cities pay $500,000."

To cut costs, Matlow suggested scrapping departments that are not "critical core services," such as strategic innovation, a department at the city that oversees the city’s state and federal lobbying efforts, develops and implements the city’s strategic plan and works on agenda processes and policy development. He also said that they should also look at the commission's food and travel budgets and cut down where they can.

Mayor John Dailey defended staff by asking Director of Resource Management Robert Wigen if Tallahassee had the lowest property tax rate, leanest workforces and lowest utility rates in comparison to 11 other cities.

The answer was "yes" to all of them.

Dailey is part of the majority voting bloc in the city, which includes Commissioners Dianne Williams-Cox and Curtis Richardson. All three have been in favor of the budget even when it was reported there would be a $3.8 million deficit.

County meeting quiet, commissioners still against tax rate

On the other side of Monroe Street, commissioners heard from no speakers on the budget but there were still some disagreements among themselves.

The seven-member panel split 6-1 on the approval of the property tax rate, with Commissioner Christian Caban being the lone dissenting vote.

He has been very vocal throughout the budget process, voicing his concerns of the effect tax increases could have on homeowners and affordable housing efforts. Caban has suggested cutting the county’s overall tax rate by $5 million, though he got no traction.

“There’s a way where we can reduce the blow to taxpayers, our employees are taken care of and also we are still increasing our revenue to cover some of the daily necessities of local government,” Caban has said.

The vote on the overall budget was unanimous, however.

When, where are the final budget hearings?

• The last county budget hearing will be 6 p.m. Sept. 24 at the Leon County Courthouse, 301 S. Monroe St.

• The last city budget hearing will be Sept. 25 at City Hall, 300 S. Adams St. The meeting is at 3 p.m., with the budget and public hearings set for 6 p.m.

Arianna Otero is the City Solutions Reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact her via email at [email protected] or on Twitter/X: @ari_v_otero.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee, Leon commissions will take final vote on 2025 budgets