Palm Beach to reduce property tax rate, direct additional revenue to public safety

The Palm Beach Town Council agreed Thursday to reduce the property tax rate and to use additional revenue created by an increase in property values to pay for public safety improvements within the town.

During a budget workshop at Town Hall, council members approved a property tax rate of $2.69 per $1,000 of taxable value for the upcoming fiscal year, though they voted unanimously to keep the tentative rate of $2.896 unchanged for now, with the intention of lowering it during a pair of state-required public hearings in September.

The proposed property tax rate of $2.69 constitutes a 7% reduction from the current fiscal year rate of $2.89 per $1,000 of taxable value.

Maintaining the tax rate at its current level would have led to a significant tax increase for all of the town's residents, Finance Director Jane LeClainche said. The proposed tax rate — if approved in September — would represent a $113 reduction in taxes per $1 million for homesteaded properties, and a $66 increase for non‐homestead properties based on the 10% cap, as defined by state law.

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That rate would generate $2.5 million more in tax revenue than an initial proposed rate of $2.59 per $1,000 of taxable value, for a total of $65.4 million.

The council agreed to use that additional tax revenue for public safety improvements that the town has been pushing for, Town Manager Kirk Blouin said.

Those improvements include the installation of smart traffic signals, crosswalks and other enhanced technology throughout the town.

Smart traffic signals gather information from sensors placed at intersections and regularly update light timing based on actual conditions. Light cycles can be adjusted remotely through this system, which is designed to reduce the amount of time that cars spend idling.

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Currently, when traffic backs up at any of the town's 12 intersections, police officers have to go to the site and manually change the light cycle, Blouin said.

Smart signal technology would allow town officials to manage traffic flow more efficiently, he added, though it won't solve all the town's traffic problems because of the sheer number of vehicles on the roadways.

"It's not a silver bullet," Blouin said. "But it will allow us, definitely, to react quicker and control the traffic a little better, at least here on the island. Many times it's all backed up in West Palm Beach, and there's no place for us to push them. It'll improve our abilities by updating the technology at these intersections."

With the council's approval of additional funding for public safety improvements, smart traffic signals could be placed at intersections throughout the town within the next year, Blouin said. Installation of the signals would coincide with town-wide undergrounding work, which is expected to move into the center of town in the months ahead.

"When we're doing the undergrounding, there's an opportunity cost for us there while we're ripping up all the roadways to put infrastructure in there," Blouin said. "Infrastructure is — in some cases — power, but also fiber optic. We can put fiber optic at all those intersections, meaning I can control all the lights here from the office. Any person with access can."

Thursday's workshop came several weeks after the town finalized a $94.7 million budget proposal for the 2022-23 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

Following the meeting, the budget increased to $97.2 million. That figure is 9% larger than the current $89.1 million budget, with most of the increase going to cover additional personnel, salary, contractual and inflationary increases.

The spending plan includes the addition of 12 new full-time positions, including four police officers. With those additions, the town's workforce would grow to nearly 363 employees.

Overall, the town is in excellent financial shape, Blouin said.

"We're delivering a budget that meets the high level of service needs of the community at the lowest possible cost, and setting up the town for a very strong financial future," he said.

The “total market value” of Palm Beach real estate is preliminarily estimated at $40.77 billion, compared to the $28 billion estimate made a year ago. The figures were based on “market conditions” as of Jan. 1 each year, according to a statement accompanyingth Palm Beach County Property Appraiser Dorothy Jacks' latest report.

The estimated property values released last year reflected a rise of about 13% over the 2020 estimates. And from 2019 to 2020 — before the coronavirus pandemic shifted the real estate market into overdrive — estimated values rose just 2.4%.

In other town news, the Planning & Zoning Commission meeting scheduled for Tuesday has been canceled. The next meeting will take place at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 16.

Jodie Wagner is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at jwagner@pbdailynews.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach Town Council agrees to lower property tax rate