Atlantic Beach officials are looking to “set the tone” by cutting recurring expenses ahead of final approval of the city’s budget.
The City Commission approved a tentative millage rate of 2.7499 at its Sept. 14 meeting.
Taking a cue from Mayor Curtis Ford, the commission also voted 4-1 to approve a tentative operating budget of $56,212,957, contingent on City Manager Kevin Hogencamp trimming an additional $500,000 from the general fund before final approval on Sept. 28. Commissioner Candace Kelly cast the dissenting vote.
“What I wanted to see in preparation for the possible and likely passage of Amendment 3, I wanted to see a reduction in the recurring expenses in the general fund,” Ford said.
“I want to take the next two weeks to sharpen the pencil and work with the city manager to find some savings on recurring expenses to drive this number down. It doesn’t fix us for the next year, and there are other headwinds that we face.”
Ford pointed to the $500,000 grant toward the Marsh Oaks Community Center as a one-time expenditure during the current fiscal year. As a nonrecurring expense, he said, that amount could be eliminated from the fiscal 2027 budget.
“We should not need $500,000 of this past year’s budget for the new year’s budget,” he said. “Plus we got $633,000 of additional ad valorem taxes on those two items, so that’s $1,033,000.”
During the public hearing, Sarah Boren urged officials to weigh the implications for future projects and programming when considering cuts to the $21.82 million general fund budget, drawing a sharp response from Ford.
“I urge you before the next meeting to really wrap your heads around what maintenance we’re deferring and what capital improvement projects are going to be deferred when you take $500,000 out of the general fund,” she said.
“With costs increasing and inflation still either flat or rising, the typical proven trajectory is for every dollar we do not pay today, we pay four times, so in a way, it could be said that you are costing us more. I would love to see a list of projects that we are deferring.”
Ford framed his approach to the budget as doing something “because it is the right thing in that moment in time.”
“I’m not going to debate you on it, but at a certain point, there are diminishing returns,” he said in response to Boren’s statement. “If your statement works, then let’s go ahead and spend $20 million more dollars to make sure we save money. That’s why we are talking about this and trying to hold this budget.”
Ford also opposed maintaining the current millage rate, which represents a 6.52% increase over the current-year rolled-back rate of 2.5815.
“If we hold the millage rate the way it is, we are doing nothing to reduce the size of government, knowing that in November we may get legislation that now will reduce our next year’s tax revenue by $1,050,000,” he said.
“All I’ve been saying for the last two months is split the difference here and cut $500,000 out of this budget. I am not going to vote for holding the millage rate, but by the next meeting I might very well vote for the millage rate.”
City Attorney Jason Gabriel warned that if the rollback rate was tentatively adopted on first reading, it could not be increased during the final adoption hearing.
The commission previously voted unanimously to adopt a resolution establishing the proposed millage rate of 2.7499 and the dates for the required public hearings.
“That was a little bit of a challenge, but I think this exercise is really good for us to go through this,” Ford said. “You are never going to go through one like this again. You are never going to have that type of circumstance staring you in the face.”
The final millage rate and budget are scheduled for the second public hearing, which is Sept. 28.
