Thursday, June 25
By Lee Melsek

It's looking more and more like living on Fort Myers Beach is about to get more expensive.
That's because the council seems to be intent on raising town property taxes again this year, which would be the second year in a row for many property owners.
The reality is, they don't have to raise taxes. They went into the summer with a $909,000 deficit looming. But Town Manager Scott Janke sharpened his pencil, scrutinized the digits that define spending and receiving and cut $135,000 out of it. Some of it would reduce money for special events, some would reduce what we pay a special master for code enforcement hearings and some would be taken our of the vessel removal fund.
No new employees are in the new budget, and no pay hikes are there either.
Janke also is showing council how they could increase revenues by raising parking fees from $1 to $2 an hour, which he estimates would bring in about $140,000 of new money. Some will argue that $2 an hour for people to park to go to the beach is gouging and they're probably right.
But even with the latest additions and subtractions his budget projections still show that the council would need to increase it's property tax millage rate from the current .709 to .875 mills to balance the new budget. Either that or start collecting a Florida Power and Light franchise fee - passed on to customers - which most council members don't want to seem to do.
What's not being talked about is this: There would be no need for a tax hike at all if the council would put the $1 million it earmarked for the county's ill-fated beach renourishment plan into the general fund's unrestricted reserves. That would take those unrestricted reserves to about $4.5 million. Janke says the town need only keep about six months worth of the budget - about $2.5 million - for rainy day emergency funds in those reserves.
By September, when the final budget must be passed, we should know that renourishment isn't going to happen. But that, of course, would up to the council. So far, they seem more intent on talking tax hikes and less on making government run more efficient.
One other use of that $1 million could be as a loan to town's water utility to at least begin fixing the worst parts of that broken system. Some council members want to wait for state grants or borrow the money to fix the system. But the state ignored the town's request this year for grants, and many, including some town staff, worry we don't have another year to wait to fix a system that is on its last leg. Using that money as a starter fix would reduce the amount needed to fix the entire system, meaning we could save money on a fix-it loan by borrowing less.
So this council could be about to increase taxes and even increase the amount we pay to park. But how about generating more revenues by increasing the paltry sum Times Square businesses pay to put their tables on public property or make them pay more than the 35 percent it costs the town to pick up their garbage. While residents pay more to park and higher taxes we may still be subsidizing the Times Square business people's garbage pickup to the tune of 65 percent of the cost.
There are more meetings throughout the summer and plenty of time for residents and taxpayers to get involved.

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