West Palm Beach proposes $203.8 million FY2022 budget; millage rate held at 8.3465

Presenter José Tayley outlined the City of West Palm Beach’s proposed fiscal year 2022 budget on a slide presentation that emphasized higher property valuations, pandemic-related revenue declines in some departments and proposed increases in personnel and operating costs.

The proposed general-fund budget totals $203,750,869. Tayley said property values in the city have risen over the past five years — from about $11.9 billion to about $15.6 billion — generating an estimated increase of roughly $900 million in assessed value and raising property-tax revenue from about $72 million five years ago to an expected $95 million for the coming year. The city’s millage rate remains unchanged at 8.3465, a level Tayley said the City Commission decided to maintain for this budget cycle.

Tayley told the presentation that the city must present a balanced budget “por ley” (by law). He added that the pandemic reduced revenues in parks, recreation and permit-related activity over the past 18 months, and staff is assuming a recovery toward pre-pandemic activity once divisions return to full operation.

Major proposed cost items include labor and benefits: union police and firefighter raises of 5% and nonunion employee cost-of-living increases of 3%; an estimated $1.3 million increase in employee health benefits; increases in Medicare and federal payroll taxes (listed as about $644,000); and higher workers’ compensation costs (about $993,000). The presentation also lists a reduction of health-insurance credits of about $739,000 and a contribution reduction of about $601,000.

Police and fire are the largest budget items. The proposed FY2022 police budget is $54,330,480, reflecting absorption of the code department into police and an increase of about 30 positions; Tayley said the department would total 411 employees. The fire department’s personnel budget is $40,869,690 and the department is budgeted for about 245 employees. Tayley said the city expects state and federal funds that together would support adding roughly 30 police officers and 28 firefighters.

Other operating changes shown in the slides: $1.0 million set aside for vehicle replacements, a $1.0 million contingency reserve, a $2.0 million increase in interfund transfers, and a principal bond payment of approximately $1.45 million for bonds approved in 2016. The presentation also listed reductions in contracted maintenance and events spending that produced savings (examples cited: $295,000 in parks maintenance and $94,000 in promotional materials).

Revenue-line items called out in the presentation included a projected $1.4 million gain in license-and-permit revenue related to the city’s franchise agreement with Florida Power & Light (FPL), increases tied to utility-related taxes (electricity, water and gas), and modest growth in intergovernmental receipts (including a county half-cent surtax and a state payment of about $400,000 that Tayley referenced). Tayley said interest income is down nationally and estimated an 11% decline year over year.

The slides also itemized operational additions: $600,000 for expanded real-time crime-center camera tech, $288,000 for fuel across the city fleet, $40,000 annually for police K-9 care, $40,000 for academy support, $20,000 for additional cleaning/disinfection for city buildings (including the library), and $877,000 in special pay tied to firefighter education.

Staff numbers shown in the presentation indicated roughly 1,110 full-time positions in FY2021 and an estimated net increase of about six employees for FY2022. Tayley said the sanitation budget is proposed at about $6,493,000 (department total $17,391,000) and parks and recreation’s proposed FY2022 budget is $19,041,681 with estimated revenue of $822,400 and approximately 146.9 full-time-equivalent positions.

Tayley closed the presentation by listing the public schedule for the budget: a presentation to the commission on Sept. 8 for adoption and a final approval hearing on Sept. 23, after any corrections.

(Direct quotes in Spanish are from Presenter José Tayley’s slide narration and comments.)