BELLE GLADE -- The Belle Glade City Commission approved the Community Redevelopment Agency budget, the 2022-23 city budget and the 2022-23 city millage during special meetings on Sept. 14.

The Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) budget for fiscal year 2022-23 has revenues of $597,781 with $54,467 of that amount coming from the county.
Commissioner Andrew Berry said he was concerned the attorney was not at the meeting. He said he has questions that have not been answered.

“Right now, we’re just approving what we have in the bank,” said Mayor Steve Wilson. He said they need to schedule a meeting to discuss the use of the CRA funds.
“We’re trying to resurrect something that has been dead for over 20 years,” said Berry.

“We’ve been accumulating the dollars,” said Wilson.

The motion passed with Berry voting against it.

The city commission set the millage rate for 2022-23 at 6.5419 mills, the same as the current millage. Because some property values have gone up, the property taxes will bring in more revenue than last year.

One mill equals $1 in taxes for every $1,000 of assessed property value.
The approved millage is an 8.10% increase over the rollback rate. The rollback rate is the millage required to fund the previous year’s budget based on the new property assessments.

Finance Officer Diana Hughes said 6.5419 mill is “the rate we have been at for years.”

She said additional funds in the budget will be used to purchase capital equipment, purchase foreclosed properties and software upgrades.

“As property values go up in the city, the amount of revenue we get goes up,” explained Hughes.

“I want to make sure our citizens aren’t affected,” said Berry.

City Manager Robert Rease said the initial proposed budget, based on requests from department heads, came out over projected revenues. He said they went back to the department heads and cut their proposed budgets.

The 2022-23 project general fund revenue is $15,361,166

The city will use $1,079,156 from the stabilization reserve to balance the budget.
“That’s money that is set aside to help us balance our budget if we need it. We’ve budgeted it in the past, but we’ve never had to actually to use those monies because expenditures were under budget and revenues have come in higher than we expected at the end of the year,” explained Hughes.

The city manager said the expenditures are the projected cost of running the city. “These are projected costs that we anticipate,” he said.

Berry objected to using the stabilization fund to balance the budget. He asked what would happen in an emergency. “We’re in hurricane season,” he added.

“We still have funds in reserves in case of emergencies such as hurricanes,” said Rease.

The 2022-23 budget includes:

• Infrastructure fund: $4,153,339
• American Rescue Plan: $6,084,186
• General capital outlay: $2,510,633
• Stormwater Fund: $2,332,515
•Garbage/solid waste: $2,968,00
• Marina Fund: $2,068,799
• Revolving loan fund: $329,460

The city commissioners also voted to increase the pay of city employees by 5% due to cost of living increases.

Berry suggested they wait to increase employee pay until the study on different pay grades is complete.

Mayor Wilson said they don’t know how long it will take to complete the study. “We still have to take care of our employees,” he said.

“It is outright just wrong to have another meeting without counsel present,” said Berry. “I can’t ask a question because counsel is not here.”